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A  TREATISE 


ON  THE 


PREPARATION   AND    DELIVERY 
OF  SERMONS 


BY  EEV.  JOHN  A.  BEOADUS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


ON  THE  PREPARATION  AND  DELIVERY  OF 
SERMONS.  New  (23d)  edition.  Revised  from  the 
author's  own  notes.     Crown  Svo,  cloth.     ^1.75. 

A  HARMONY  OF  THE  GOSPELS  IN  THE  REVISED 
VERSION.     Fourth  edition.    Sq.  Svo,  doth.    ^1.50. 

LECTURES   ON  THE   HISTORY    OF    PREACHING. 

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JESUS  OF  NAZARETH:  His  Personal  Character; 
His  Ethical  Teachings;  His  Supernatural 
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SERMONS  AND  ADDRESSES.  With  Portrait  of  the 
Author.     Crown  Svo,  cloth,     ^r.50. 

COMMENTARY   ON  MATTHEW.     Crown  Svo,  cloth. 

^2.25. 

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For  sale  by  all  Booksellers^  or  sent  by  mail,  postpaid,  on 
receipt  of  price,  by 

A.   C.   ARMSTRONG   AND    SON, 

3  and  5  West  iSth  St.  (near  5th  Avenue),  New  York. 


A  TREATISE   ON   THE 

PREPARATION  AND  DELIVERY 


OF 


SERMONS 

BY 

JOHN  A.  BROADUS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

AUTHOR  OF 

"A   HARMONY   OF  THE    GOSPELS,"     "HISTORY    OF    PREACHING," 

"COMMENTARY   ON   MATTHEW,"    ETC. 


Nebj  (STbjentgtfsiitij)  Eaition 

EDITED  BY 

EDWIN  CHARLES  DARGAN,  D.D. 

PROFESSOR   OF   HOMILETICS   IN    THE    SOUTHERN    BAPTIST   THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARY,   LOUISVILLE,   KY. 


NEW   YORK 
A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  AND   SON 

3  &  5  West  i8*  Street,  near  5th  Avenue 
1903 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1870,  by 

JOHN   A.   BROADUS, 
In  the  Ofl&ce  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 

Copyright,  1898, 
By  Charlotte  E.  Broadus. 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S. A. 


tt 


PREFACE 

TO  THE  REVISED   EDITION. 


THE  first  edition  of  this  work  was  published  in 
the  summer  of  1870.  Immediately  after  get- 
ting it  through  the  press  the  author  went  abroad  for 
some  months,  and  did  not  expect  to  teach  Homi- 
letics  again  after  his  return.  But  circumstances 
made  it  necessary  that  he  should  resume  his  work 
in  that  department  —  always  a  favorite  subject  with 
him.  The  book  was  a  great  success.  It  became 
the  most  popular  and  widely-read  text-book  on 
Homiletics  in  this  country,  and  has  passed  through 
twenty-two  editions,  thousands  of  copies  having  been 
sold.  It  has  been  adopted  in  many  theological  sem- 
inaries of  different  denominations  as  the  text-book, 
and  in  many  where  no  text-book  is  used  it  is  highly 
commended  for  study  and  reference.  Besides  this, 
it  has  had  a  wide  and  useful  circulation  among  the 
ministry  in  general.  Two  separate  editions  were 
published  in  England;  the  book  was  used  in  the 
mission  schools  in  Japan,  in  its  English  form,  and 
was  translated  for  similar  use  in  the  Chinese  mis- 
sions. A  translation  into  Portuguese  for  the  Protes- 
tant missions  in  Brazil  has  been  prepared,  and  only 
waits  for  funds  to  be  published. 

^■^5113 


vi        PREFACE   TO   THE    REVISED   EDITION. 

The  following  several  things  call  for  a  revised 
edition  at  this  time:  The  copyright  will  have  to  be 
renewed  in  1898,  and  this  affords  good  opportunity 
to  bring  out  a  new  edition ;  the  original  stereotype 
plates  have  become  greatly  worn ;  the  correction  of 
a  few  minor  errors,  and  some  additions  and  alter- 
ations, made  desirable  by  the  author's  larger  experi- 
ence in  studying  and  teaching  the  subject,  are  called 
for;  there  have  been  great  contributions  to  the  litera- 
ture of  Homiletics  since  the  work  was  first  published, 
and  the  author  always  kept  abreast  of  progress ;  and, 
most  of  all,  the  continued  demand  for  the  book  after 
twenty-seven  years  of  useful  service  requires  response 
in  the  way  of  bringing  the  work  up  with  the  times. 

The  present  writer's  connection  with  this  revision 
is  easily  explained.  In  the  fall  of  1892  I  became 
associate  professor  of  Homiletics  with  Dr.  Broadus 
in  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  and 
had  the  privilege  of  teaching  the  subject  with  him 
up  to  the  time  of  his  lamented  death  in  March,  1895. 
We  divided  the  work  of  teaching  under  his  direc- 
tion, and  as  the  state  of  his  health  permitted.  It 
fell  to  my  lot  to  do  more  and  more  of  the  work  as 
his  health  declined. 

During  these  years  we  had  frequent  conversations 
in  regard  to  the  revision  of  this  volume.  It  was  one 
of  his  cherished  plans  to  bring  out  a  revised  edition 
before  his  death.  With  that  end  in  view  he  had 
accumulated  a  good  deal  of  material,  mostly  in  the 
shape  of  notes,  some  in  various  note-books,  and 
some  written  on  the  margins  and  fly-leaves  of  the 
book  which  he  had  used  in  the  class-room  for  a  num- 
ber of  years.  In  addition  to  these  notes  there  were 
many  points  which  he  had  discussed  in  conversation 


PREFACE  TO   THE   REVISED   EDITION.       vii 

with  me  in  regard  to  changes  and  improvements  in 
the  work.  At  the  opening  of  the  session  of  1894-95 
he  gave  me  an  interleaved  copy  of  the  book  to  use  in 
the  class-room,  with  the  request  that  I  should  note 
on  the  blank  pages  every  suggestion  which  occurred 
to  me,  looking  toward  the  proposed  revision.  In 
the  latter  part  of  February,  1895,  I  took  him  the 
book  and  talked  to  him  about  the  revision;  but  alas! 
in  less  than  three  weeks  he  was  in  his  grave. 

As  the  revision  seemed  absolutely  imperative,  with 
the  full  approbation  of  Dr.  Broadus'  family,  I  have 
felt  it  a  sacred  duty  and  privilege  to  undertake  the 
task.  How  well  or  how  ill  it  may  have  been  executed 
will  appear  in  the  following  pages. 

Three  classes  of  changes  have  been  made :  (i)  Those 
which  were  clearly  indicated  in  the  author's  notes 
already  mentioned.  These  I  have  made  without 
hesitation,  as  being  certainly  what  he  himself  would 
have  done.  (2)  Some  changes  not  particularly  noted 
by  him,  but  concerning  which  I  have  distinct  recol- 
lections of  conversation,  or  concerning  which  on 
other  accounts  I  feel  reasonably  sure  that  he  would 
have  made  the  alterations  adopted.  (3)  There  are 
also  some  changes  wherein  I  have  had  to  rely  upon 
my  own  judgment,  believing  that  they  would  be  for 
the  better.  It  is  right  for  me  to  say  that  these  are 
comparatively  few,  and,  further,  that  I  have  made 
no  changes  without  consultation  with  members  of 
the  author's  family,  from  whom  valuable  help  and 
suggestions  have  been  received. 

As  most  of  the  alterations  are  the  author's,  I  beg 
to  say  distinctly  that  whatever  improvements  may 
be  noticed  in  the  book  should  be  ascribed  to  him, 
and  the  editor  will  cheerfully  take  the  responsibility 


vm      PREFACE   TO   THE   REVISED  EDITION. 

of  any  changes  which  may  not  meet  the  approval  of 
the  reader. 

It  is  my  earnest  prayer  and  hope  that  this  book, 
which  has  been  so  useful  for  twenty-seven  years, 
shall  go  forth  in  its  new  form  on  a  mission  of  con- 
tinued and  larger  usefulness  to  those  whose  blessed 
work  it  is  to  preach  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ. 

E.  C.  Dargan. 

Louisville,  Ky.,  Decefnber,  1897. 


AUTHOR'S    PREFACE   TO   THE 
FIRST  EDITION. 


I'^HIS  work  is  designed,  on  the  one  hand  to  be  a 
text-book  for  classes,  and  on  the  other  to  be 
read  by  such  ministers,  younger  or  older,  as  may 
wish  to  study  the  subjects  discussed. 

As  a  teacher  of  Homiletics  for  ten  years,  the 
author  had  felt  the  need  of  a  more  complete  text- 
book, since  a  course  made  up  from  parts  of  several 
different  works  would  still  omit  certain  important 
subjects,  and  furnish  but  a  meagre  treatment  of 
others,  leaving  the  class  to  a  great  extent  dependent 
entirely  upon  the  lectures.  The  desire  thus  arose 
to  prepare,  whenever  possible,  a  work  which  should 
be  full  in  its  range  of  topics,  and  should  also  attempt 
to  combine  the  thorough  discussion  of  principles 
with  an  abundance  of  practical  rules  and  sugges- 
tions. When  the  labor  involved  in  teaching  this 
and  at  the  same  time  another  branch  of  Theology 
became  excessive,  and  it  was  necessary  to  relinquish 
Homiletics  —  though  always  a  favorite  branch  — 
the  author  determined,  before  the  subject  should 
fade  from  his  mind,  to  undertake  the  work  he  had 
contemplated.^ 

1  [This  relinquishment  was  only  temporary,  being  required  by  the 
author's  state  of  health,  though  he  at  the  time  supposed  it  would  be 
permanent.  After  one  year  he  resumed  Homiletics,  and  taught  it 
with  enthusiasm  and  success  to  the  end  of  his  life.  —  D.] 


X  PREFACE   TO   THE    FIRST   EDITION. 

The  treatise  is  therefore  a  result  of  practical  in- 
struction, but  it  is  not  simply  a  printed  course  of 
lectures.  The  materials  existing  in  the  form  of 
brief  notes  have  been  everywhere  rewrought,  the 
literature  of  the  subject  carefully  re-examined,  and 
the  place  which  had  been  occupied  by  text-books 
filled  by  an  independent  discussion. 

Those  who  may  think  of  employing  the  work  as  a 
text-book  are  requested  to  note,  that  it  is  divided 
into  independent  Parts,  which,  while  arranged  in 
the  order  indicated  by  the  nature  of  the  subject, 
may  be  taken  up  in  any  other  order  required  by  the 
exigencies  of  instruction.  Some  would  prefer  to 
begin  with  Arrangement,  in  order  that  students  may 
at  once  have  the  benefit  of  this  in  preparing  sermons 
or  sketches.  Others  might  begin  with  Style,  in 
order  to  general  exercises  in  composition;  and  pos- 
sibly others  with  Delivery.  The  author  would  him- 
self prefer  if  using  the  book,  to  take,  after  the 
Introduction,  the  first  three  chapters  of  Part  I.,  and 
then  Part  II.,  and  perhaps  other  portions  before  com- 
pleting Part  I.  The  cross  references  from  one  part 
to  another  will  be  found  somewhat  numerous.  In  the 
plan  of  the  work,  a  few  instances  occur  of  departure 
from  a  strict  technical  distribution  of  the  topics,  for 
the  sake  of  practical  convenience.  Thus  the  matters 
embraced  under  Illustration,  Expository  Preaching, 
or  Imagination,  would  strictly  belong  to  several 
different  parts  of  the  work,  but  it  is  practically 
better  to  discuss  all  at  the  same  time.  So  with 
Occasional  Sermons. 

It  may  be  necessary  to  explain  the  introduction 
of  copious  chapters  on  the  Interpretation  of  a  Text, 
and  on  Argument.     The  former  subject  is  discussed 


PREFACE   TO   THE   FIRST   EDITION.  XI 

in  treatises  on  Hermeneutics.  But  besides  the  fact 
that  not  a  few  of  those  who  use  this  book  will  not 
have  previously  studied  Hermeneutics,  those  who 
have  done  so  may  be  interested  and  profited  by  a  dis- 
cussion bearing  more  directly  on  the  work  of  preach- 
ing; and  such  students  will  be  able  to  read  the 
chapter  rapidly.  Much  improvement  has  been  made 
during  the  past  century  in  respect  to  pulpit  inter- 
pretation, but  it  is  a  point  as  to  which  our  young 
ministers  still  need  to  be  very  carefully  guarded. 
The  subject  of  Argument  is  thought  by  some  to 
be  out  of  place  in  a  treatise  on  Homiletics  or  on 
Rhetoric  in  general.  But  preaching  and  all  public 
speaking  ought  to  be  largely  composed  of  argument, 
for  even  the  most  ignorant  people  constantly  prac- 
tise it  themselves,  and  always  feel  its  force  when 
properly  presented;  and  yet  in  many  pulpits  the 
place  of  argument  is  mainly  filled  by  mere  assertion 
and  exhortation,  and  the  arguments  employed  are 
often  carelessly  stated,  or  even  gravely  erroneous. 
Treatises  on  Logic  teach  the  critical  inspection, 
rather  than  the  construction  of  argument,  and  so 
the  latter  must  be  discussed  in  works  on  Rhetoric, 
if  anywhere.  The  well-known  chapters  of  Whately 
have  been  here  freely  employed,  but  with  very  large 
additions,  and  with  the  attempt  to  correct  some 
important  errors.  The  examples  of  argument  given 
are  nearly  all  drawn  from  religious  truth.  With 
these  explanations  it  is  left  to  instructors  to  use  or 
omit  these  portions  of  the  work  at  their  pleasure. 

But  the  great  mass  of  young  ministers,  particularly 
in  some  denominations,  never  study  Homiletics 
under  a  teacher,  whether  they  have  or  have  not  en- 
joyed a  Collegiate  education.    The  attempt  has  been 


Xll  PREFACE   TO   THE   FIRST   EDITION. 

everywhere  made  to  adapt  the  present  work  to  the 
wants  of  these  students,  as  well  as  to  the  purposes 
of  a  text-book.  They  will  choose  for  themselves 
what  portions  to  take  up  first,  but  such  as  have  had 
no  College  education  may  be  urged  not  to  abandon 
the  book  without  reading  the  discussion  of  Arrange- 
ment and  Style,  as  well  as  of  Interpretation,  Subjects 
of  Preaching,  and  Argument. 

Those  who  have  had  much  experience  in  preaching 
often  find  it  interesting  and  useful  to  examine  a 
treatise  on  the  preparation  and  delivery  of  sermons. 
New  topics  and  new  methods  may  be  suggested, 
things  forgotten  or  hitherto  neglected  are  recalled, 
ideas  gradually  formed  in  the  course  of  experience 
are  made  clearer  and  more  definite,  and  where  the 
views  advanced  are  not  deemed  just,  renewed  reflec- 
tion on  some  questions  need  not  be  unprofitable. 
Moreover,  the  desire  for  high  excellence  in  preach- 
ing may  receive  a  fresh  stimulus.  Such  readers 
will  remember  that  many  practical  matters  which  to 
them  have  now  become  obvious  and  commonplace, 
are  precisely  the  points  upon  which  a  beginner  most 
needs  counsel.  And  while  there  are  in  the  pres- 
ent treatise  numerous  divisions  and  subdivisions,  so 
marked  as  to  meet  the  wants  of  students,  the  attempt 
has  been  made  to  preserve  the  style  from  becoming 
broken  and  unreadable. 

The  author's  chief  indebtedness  for  help  has  been 
to  Aristotle,  Cicero,  and  Quintilian,  and  to  Whately 
and  Vinet.  The  two  last  (together  with  Ripley)  had 
been  his  text-books,— and  copious  extracts  are  made 
from  them  on  certain  subjects.  A  good  deal  has 
been  derived  from  Alexander,  Shedd,  Day,  and 
Hoppin,  from   Coquerel  and  Palmer,   and  a  great 


PREFACE   TO   THE   FIRST   EDITION.        xiii 

variety  of  other  writers.  Besides  quotations,  there 
are  numerous  references  to  works  in  which  may  be 
found  some  impressive  statement  of  similar  opinions, 
or  further  considerations  bearing  on  the  subject  in 
hand.  Only  such  references  have  been  given  as  it 
was  thought  really  worth  while  for  the  student  to 
consult.  At  the  close  of  the  Introduction,^  there  is 
a  list  of  the  principal  works  forming  the  Literature 
of  Homiletics,  with  brief  notices  of  their  character 
and  value.  It  is  believed  that  to  give  in  a  treatise 
some  account  of  previous  works  on  the  subject,  as 
judged  from  the  author's  point  of  view,  is  a  thing 
appropriate  and  calculated  to  be  useful.  Such 
notices,  in  the  case  of  contemporary  writers,  ought 
not  to  be  reckoned  discourteous  if  they  frankly  ex- 
press disapprobation  in  some  respects  as  well  as 
praise  in  others.  Were  they  somewhat  more  ex- 
tended, these  critical  appreciations  would  be  more 
useful.  Besides  this  general  account  of  the  litera- 
ture, essays  and  treatises  upon  particular  branches 
of  Rhetoric  or  Homiletics  are  briefly  characterized 
in  foot-notes,  upon  the  introduction  of  the  respec- 
tive topics.  Two  important  and  valuable  works, 
Mcllvaine  on  Elocution  (New  York,  1870),  and 
Dabney's  Sacred  Rhetoric  (Richmond,  1870),  were 
received  after  the  Introduction  was  stereotyped,  but 
are  noticed  in  Part  IV.,  chapter  ii.,  and  were  made 
useful  in  that  and  the  following  chapters.  Two 
articles  published  by  the  author  in  the  Baptist 
Quarterly  for  January,  1869,  and  January,  1870,  have 
been  incorporated  into  the  work,  with  the  necessary 
rewriting;  and  some  articles  forming  other  portions 

1  [It  was  thus  in  the  earlier  editions;  but  in  this,  the  Bibliography 
will  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  book.  —  D.] 


XIV        PREFACE   TO   THE   FIRST   EDITION. 

of  it  have  appeared  in  the  Religious  Herald,  and  the 
Central  Baptist.  The  author  is  grateful  to  his  col- 
leagues and  his  pastor,^  for  sympathy  in  his  under- 
taking and  for  valuable  suggestions.  The  Index 
has  been  prepared  by  the  Rev.  John  C.  Long,  of 
Virginia.  2 

Special  pains  have  been  taken,  at  the  proper  points 
of  the  treatise,  to  give  practical  suggestions  for  ex- 
temporaneous speaking.  Most  works  confine  their 
instruction  as  regards  the  preparation  of  sermons  to 
the  case  of  writing  out  in  full;  and  many  treat  of 
delivery,  as  if  it  were  in  all  cases  to  be  reading  or 
recitation.  The  effort  has  here  been  to  keep  the 
different  methods  in  view,  and  to  mention,  in  con- 
nection with  matters  applicable  to  all  alike,  such  as 
apply  to  one  or  another  method  in  particular. 

As  to  many  of  the  practical  questions  connected 
with  the  preparation  and  delivery  of  sermons,  there 
is  much  difference  of  opinion;  and  an  experienced 
preacher  in  reading  any  treatise  on  the  subject,  must 
find  points  here  and  there  which  he  would  prefer  to 
see  treated  otherwise.  He  would  decide  whether, 
notwithstanding,  the  work  is  likely  to  be  useful. 
In  the  present  case,  criticism,  whether  favorable 
or  adverse,  would  be  welcomed.  Where  the  author 
is  in  error,  he  would  greatly  prefer  to  know  it. 
Where  the  views  presented  are  just,  they  may  be- 
come more  useful  through  discussion. 

No   one   could   prepare   a   work  on    this   subject 

1  [The  Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  D.  Thomas,  then  the  beloved  pastor  of  the 
Greenville,  S.  C,  Baptist  Church,  now  Professor  of  Philosophy  in 
Richmond  College,  Richmond,  Va.  —  D.] 

2  [Afterwards  Professor  of  Church  History  in  Crozer  Theological 
Seminary,  Upland,  Pennsylvania,  and  since  deceased.  —  D.] 


PREFACE   TO   THE   FIRST   EDITION.  XV 

without  feeling,  and  sometimes  deeply  feeling,  the 
responsibility  he  incurred.  It  is  a  solemn  thing  to 
preach  the  gospel,  and  therefore  a  very  solemn  thing 
to  attempt  instruction  or  even  suggestion  as  to  the 
means  of  preaching  well. 

July,  1870. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

PACK 

1.  Importance  of  Preaching  and  Difficulty  of  Preaching 

Well 2 

2.  Nature  of  Eloquence 4 

3.  Requisites  to  Effective  Preaching 7 

4.  Origin  of  the  Rules  of  Rhetoric 10 

5.  Dangers  of  Rhetorical  Studies 11 

6.  Relation  of  Homiletics  to  Rhetoric 15 

7.  The  Study  of  Homiletics 17 


Part  I. 

MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 
CHAPTER   I. 

THE   TEXT  —  SELECTION. 

1.  Meaning  of  the  Term 19 

2.  Advantages  of  Having  a  Text 21 

3.  Rules  for  the  Selection  of  Texts 23 

CHAPTER   H. 

THE   TEXT  —  INTERPRETATION. 

1.  Obligation  to  Interpret  Carefully  and  Strictly  ...  32 

2.  Chief  Sources  of  Error  in  the  Interpretation  of  a  Text  38 

3.  Examples  of  Texts  often  Misapplied 55 

4.  Suggestions  for  the  Study  of  Texts 64 


xvm  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   III. 

SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED. 

PAGB 

§  I.  Doctrinal  Subjects 76 

2.  Subjects  of  Morality 86 

3.  Historical  Subjects 93 

4.  Experimental  Subjects 96 

CHAPTER   IV. 

SERMONS   FOR  PARTICULAR   OCCASIONS   AND   CLASSES. 

§  I.     Funeral  Sermons 100 

2.  Academic  and  Anniversary  Sermons 103 

3.  Revival  Sermons 105 

4.  Sermons  to  Children 109 

5.  Sermons  for  Other  Special  Classes 115 

CHAPTER   V. 

GENERAL  MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 

§  I.  Invention  and  its  Aids 118 

2.  Accumulation  of  Materials 120 

3.  Originality 129 

4.  Plagiarism  and  Borrowing 137 

5.  Freshness  in  Preaching  —  Helps 146 

6.  Sensational  Preaching — Cautions 149 

CHAPTER   VI. 

SPECIAL  MATERIALS  —  EXPLANATION. 

§  I.     Explanation  in  General 153 

2.  Explanation  of  Texts      . 155 

3.  Explanation  of  Subjects 163 

CHAPTER   VII. 

SPECIAL   MATERIALS  —  ARGUMENT. 


Importance  of  Argument  in  Preaching  .     .     .     .     .  169 

Questions  Preliminary  to  Argument 172 

Principal  Varieties  of  Argument 180 

Certain  Forms  of  Argument 204 

Refutation 207 

Order  of  Arguments 216 

General  Suggestions  as  to  Argument 220 


CONTENTS.  xix 
CHAPTER  VIII. 

SPECIAL  MATERIALS  —  ILLUSTRATION. 

PAGE 

1.  Various  Uses  of  Illustration 225 

2.  Sources  of  Illustration 229 

3.  Cautions  as  to  the  Employment  of  Illustration     .     .  243 

CHAPTER   IX. 

SPECIAL   MATERIALS  —  APPLICATION.  245 


Part  II. 

ARRANGEMENT   OF   A   SERMON. 
CHAPTER   I. 

IMPORTANCE   OF   ARRANGEMENT.  258 

CHAPTER    II. 
THE  SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON. 

§  I.     The  Introduction 266 

2.  The  Discussion 276 

3.  The  Conclusion 298 

CHAPTER   III. 

DIFFERENT  SPECIES   OF   SERMONS. 

§  I.     Subject-Sermons 308 

2.  Text-Sermons 311 

3.  Expository  Sermons 317 


Part  III. 

STYLE. 
CHAPTER   I. 

GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE. 

§  I.     Nature  and  Importance  of  Style 339 

2.     Means  of  Improving  Style 345 


XX  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   II. 

PAGE 

QUALITIES   OF  STYLE  —  PERSPICUITY.  361 

CHAPTER   III. 

ENERGY  OF  STYLE.  380 

CHAPTER   IV. 

ELEGANCE  OF  STYLE.  405 

CHAPTER  V. 

IMAGINATION   IN   PREACHING. 

§  I.    Uses  of  Imagination  to  the  Orator 420 

2.     Means  of  Cultivating  the  Imagination 426 


part  IV. 

DELIVERY  OF  SERMONS. 
CHAPTER  I. 

THE  THREE   METHODS    OF   PREPARATION  AND  DELIVERY. 

§  I.  Description  and  History  of  the  Three  Methods  .    .  432 

2.  Reading 439 

3.  Recitation 450 

4.  Extemporaneous  or  Free  Speaking 456 

5.  General  and  Special  Preparation  for  Free  Delivery 

in  Preaching 470 

CHAPTER  II. 

ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE. 

§  I.  General  Remarks  on  Delivery 477 

2.  The  Voice  —  its  Distinct  Powers 483 

3.  General  Improvement  of  the  Voice 485 

4.  Management  of  the  Voice  when  actually  Preaching  492 

CHAPTER   III. 
ON  DELIVERY,  AS  REGARDS  ACTION.  496 


CONTENTS. 


XXI 


part  V. 

CONDUCT  OF   PUBLIC  WORSHIP. 


§1 

2 

3 
4 
5 
6, 


Reading  Scripture 512 

Hymns 519 

Public  Prayer 527 

Length  of  the  Services 535 

Pulpit  Decorum 538 

Concluding  Remarks 540 


Bibliography 
Index     .    .    . 


543 

555 


THE 


PREPARATION  AND   DELIVERY 


OF  SERMONS. 


INTRODUCTION. 


§  I.  Importance  of  Preaching 
AND  Difficulty  of  Preach- 
ing Well. 

2.  Nature  of  Eloquence. 

3.  Requisites      to     Effective 

Preaching. 


§  4.  Origin    of    the    Rules   op 
Rhetoric. 

5.  Dangers      of      Rhetorical 

Studies. 

6.  Relation  of  Homiletics  to 

Rhetoric. 

7.  Study  of  Homiletics. 


PREACHING  is  characteristic  of  Christianity.  No 
false  religion  has  ever  provided  for  the  regular 
and  frequent  assembling  of  the  masses  of  men,  to 
hear  religious  instruction  and  exhortation.^  Judaism 
had  something  like  it  in  the  prophets,  and  afterwards 
in  the  readers  and  speakers  of  the  synagogue ;  but 
Judaism  was  a  true  religion,  designed  to  be  developed 
into  Christianity. 

It  is  true  that  some  heathen  religious  teachers,  see- 
ing the  power  of  preaching,  have  at  times  tried  to 
imitate  Christianity  in  this  respect.  Thus  the  Roman 
emperor  Julian,  commonly  called  the  Apostate,  di- 
rected the  pagan  philosophers  to  preach  every  week 
as  the  Christians  did.^  And  in  modern  times  there 
are  said   to   have   been  in  China,  Japan,  and  India 


1  Comp.  Vinet,  p.  21. 

2  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Orat.  in  Jul.  Apost 


2  INTRODUCTION. 

instances  of  the  adoption  of  something  like  preaching. 
But  so  far  as  is  known  preaching  remains,  both  in 
origin  and  history,  a  pecuHarly  Christian  institution. 

§  I.      IMPORTANCE  OF  PREACHING  AND  DIFFICULTY 
OF   PREACHING  WELL. 

The  great  appointed  means  of  spreading  the  good 
tidings  of  j^alvation  through  Christ  is  preaching  — 
words  spoken  whether  to  the  individual,  or  to  the 
assembly.  And  this,  nothing  can  supersede.  Print- 
ing has  become  a  mighty  agency  for  good  and  for 
evil ;  and  Christians  should  employ  it,  with  the  ut- 
most diligence  and  in  every  possible  way,  for  the 
spread  of  truth.  But  printing  can  never  take  the 
place  of  the  living  word.  When  a  man  who  is  apt 
in  teaching,  whose  soul  is  on  fire  with  the  truth  which 
he  trusts  has  saved  him  and  hopes  will  save  others, 
speaks  to  his  fellow-men,  face  to  face,  eye  to  eye,  and 
electric  sympathies  flash  to  and  fro  between  him  and 
his  hearers,  till  they  lift  each  other  up,  higher  and 
higher,  into  the  intensest  thought,  and  the  most 
impassioned  emotion  —  higher  and  yet  higher,  till 
they  are  borne  as  on  chariots  of  fire  above  the  world, 
—  there  is  a  power  to  move  men,  to  influence  char- 
acter, life,  destiny,  such  as  no  printed  page  can  ever 
possess.  Pastoral  work  is  of  immense  importance, 
and  all  preachers  should  be  diligent  in  performing  it. 
But  it  cannot  take  the  place  of  preaching,  nor  fully 
compensate  for  lack  of  power  in  the  pulpit.  The  two 
help  each  other,  and  neither  of  them  is  able,  unless  sup- 
ported by  the  other,  to  achieve  the  largest  and  most 
blessed  results.  When  he  who  preaches  is  the  sym- 
pathizing pastor,  the  trusted  counsellor,  the  kindly 
and  honored  friend  of  young  and  old,  of  rich  and 
poor,  then  "truths   divine  come   mended   from   his 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

lips/'  and  the  door  to  men's  hearts,  by  the  magi- 
cal power  of  sympathy,  will  fly  open  at  his  word. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  when  he  who  visits  is  the 
preacher,  whose  thorough  knowledge  of  Scripture 
and  elevated  views  of  life,  whose  able  and  impas- 
sioned discourses  have  carried  conviction  and  com- 
manded admiration,  and  melted  into  one  the  hearts 
of  the  multitude,  who  is  accustomed  to  stand  before 
them  as  the  ambassador  of  God,  and  is  associated  in 
their  minds  with  the  authority  and  the  sacredness  of 
God's  Word,  —  when  he  comes  to  speak  with  the  suf- 
fering, the  sorrowing,  the  tempted,  his  visit  has  a 
meaning  and  a  power  of  which  otherwise  it  must  be 
destitute.  If  a  minister  feels  himself  specially  drawn 
towards  either  of  these  departments  of  effort,  let  him 
also  constrain  himself  to  diligence  in  the  other. 

Religious  ceremonies  may  be  instructive  and  im- 
pressive. The  older  dispensation  made  much  use  of 
these,  as  we  employ  pictures  in  teaching  children. 
Even  Christianity,  which  has  the  minimum  of  cere- 
mony, illustrates  its  fundamental  facts,  and  often 
makes  deep  religious  impressions,  by  its  two  simple 
but  expressive  ordinances.  But  these  are  merely 
pictures  to  illustrate,  merely  helps  to  that  great  work 
of  teaching  and  convincing,  of  winning  and  holding 
men,  which  preaching,  made  mighty  by  God's  Spirit, 
has  to  perform. 

It  follows  that  preaching  must  always  be  a  neces- 
sity, and  good  preaching  a  mighty  power.  In  every 
age  of  Christianity,  since  John  the  Baptist  drew 
crowds  into  the  desert,  there  has  been  no  great  relig- 
ious movement,  no  restoration  of  Scripture  truth,  and 
reanimation  of  genuine  piety,  without  new  power  in 
preaching,  both  as  cause  and  as  effect. 

But  alas !  how  difficult  we  find  it  to  preach  well. 
How  small  a  proportion  of  the  sermons  heard  weekly 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

throughout  the  world  are  really  good.  The  dilettanti 
men  of  letters  who  every  now  and  then  fill  the  peri- 
odicals with  sneers  at  preaching,  no  doubt  judge 
most  unkindly  and  unjustly,  for  they  purposely  com- 
pare ordinary  examples  of  preaching  with  the  finest 
specimens  of  literature,  and  they  forget  their  own 
utter  lack,  in  the  one  case,  of  that  sympathetic 
appreciation  without  which  all  literary  and  artistic 
judgment  is  necessarily  at  fault;  but  we  who  love 
preaching  and  who  try  to  preach  are  better  aware 
than  they  are,  of  the  deficiencies  which  mar  our 
efforts,  and  the  difficulties  which  attend  our  work. 
A  venerable  and  eminently  useful  minister^  once 
remarked,  as  he  rose  from  the  couch  on  which  he 
had  been  resting,  **  Well,  I  must  get  ready  to  preach 
to-night.  But  I  can't  preach  —  I  never  did  preach  — 
O,  I  never  heard  anybody  preach." 

And  yet  in  this  work  of  ours,  so  awful  and  so  at- 
tractive, so  difficult  and  solemnly  responsible  and  yet 
so  blessed,  we  ought  to  aspire  after  the  highest  ex- 
cellence. If  in  other  varieties  of  public  speaking, 
then  most  of  all  in  this,  may  we  adopt  Cicero's  words 
with  reference  to  the  young  orator,  "  I  will  not  only 
exhort,  but  will  even  beseech  him,  to  labor."  ^ 

§  2.      NATURE  OF  ELOQUENCE. 

What  is  good  preaching?  Or,  more  generally, 
what  is  eloquence?  This  is  not  a  merely  specula- 
tive inquiry,  for  our  fundamental  views  on  the  sub- 
ject will  influence,  to  a  greater  extent  than  we  may  be 
aware,  our  practical  efforts.  Without  reviewing  the 
copious  discussions  of  the  question,  the  following 
statement  may  be  offered :  Eloquence  is  so  speaking 

1  The  late  Dr.  J.  B.  Jeter,  of  Virginia. 

2  Cic.  de  Or.  II.  §  85. 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

as  not  merely  to  convince  the  judgment,  kindle  the 
imagination,  and  move  the  feelings,  but  to  give  a 
powerful  impulse  to  the  will.  All  of  these  are  nec- 
essary elements  of  eloquence,  but  that  which  is  most 
characteristic  is  the  last.  There  may  be  instruction 
and  conviction  without  eloquence.  The  fancy  may 
be  charmed,  as  by  a  poem  or  novel,  when  you  would 
not  think  of  calling  it  eloquence.  The  feelings  may 
be  deeply  stirred  by  a  pathetic  tale  or  a  harrowing 
description,  but  no  corresponding  action  being  pro- 
posed, we  do  not  speak  of  it  as  eloquence.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  not  strictly  correct  to  say  that  **  elo- 
quence is  so  speaking  as  to  carry  your  point ;  "  for 
there  may  be  an  invincible  prejudice,  or  other  insup- 
erable obstacle,  as,  for  example,  a  preacher  may  be 
truly  eloquent,  without  actually  inducing  his  hearers 
to  repent.  There  must  be  a  powerful  impulse  upon 
the  will ;  the  hearers  must  feel  smitten,  stirred,  moved 
to,  or  at  least  moved  towards,  some  action  or  deter* 
mination  to  act.  Words  that  by  carrying  conviction, 
kindling  imagination,  and  arousing  emotion,  produce 
such  an  effect  as  this  upon  the  will,  are  rightly 
called  eloquent  words.  Augustine  says,  Veritas  pa- 
teat^  Veritas  placeaty  Veritas  moveatj  "  Make  the  truth 
plain,  make  it  pleasing,  make  it  moving." 

Eloquence,  then,  is  a  practical  thing.  Unless  it 
aims  at  real  and  practical  results,  it  is  spurious. 
Daniel  O'Connell,  the  famous  Irish  patriot  and  lawyer, 
is  credited  with  the  saying,  "  A  good  speech  is  a  good 
thing,  but  the  verdict  is  the  thing."  Mere  holiday 
eloquence  does  not  deserve  the  name.  And  the 
preacher  who  kindles  the  fancy  of  his  hearers  merely 
for  their  delectation,  who  stirs  their  passions  merely 
to  give  them  the  luxury  of  emotion,  is  not  eloquent. 
There  is  too  much  preaching  of  just  this  sort.  Be- 
sides vain  pretenders  who  care  only  to  please,  there 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

are  good  men,  who,  if  they  can  say  very  handsome 
things,  and  can  make  the  people  feel,  imagine  that 
they  are  preaching  well,  without  inquiring  why  the 
people  feel,  and  to  what  truly  religious  ends  the  feel- 
ing is  directed.  It  is  a  shame  to  see  what  vapid  and 
worthless  stuff  is  often  called  eloquence,  in  news- 
paper puffs,  and  in  the  talk  of  half-educated  young- 
lings returning  from  church. 

Eloquence  is  a  serious  thing.  You  cannot  say  that 
a  discourse,  or  a  paragraph,  is  very  amusing  and  very 
eloquent.  The  speaker  who  is  to  deserve  this  high 
name  must  have  moral  earnestness.  He  may  some- 
times indulge,  where  it  is  appropriate,  in  the  light 
play  of  delicate  humor,  or  give  forth  sparks  of  wit, 
but  these  must  be  entirely  incidental,  and  subordinate 
to  a  thorough  seriousness  and  earnestness.  Theremin, 
in  his  useful  little  treatise,  "  Eloquence  a  Virtue,"  in- 
sists that  eloquence  belongs  to  the  ethical  sciences, 
the  character  and  spirit  of  the  speaker  being  the  main 
thing.  The  theory  is  an  exaggeration,  but  contains 
an  important  element  of  truth,  as  Quintilian  already 
had  partly  observed.^ 

**  What  is  the  true  ground  of  eloquence,"  says 
Vinet,  "  if  it  is  not  commonplace?  When  eloquence 
is  combined  with  high  philosophical  considerations, 
as  in  many  modern  examples,  we  are  at  first  tempted 
to  attribute  to  philosophy  the  impression  we  receive 
from  it;  but  eloquence  is  something  more  popular; 
it  is  the  power  of  making  the  primitive  chords  of  the 
soul  (its  purely  human  elements)  vibrate  within  us  — 
it  is  in  this,  and  nothing  else,  that  we  acknowledge 
the  orator."  ^     It  is  impossible  to  be  eloquent  on  any 

1  Quint.  Inst.  XII.  i,  "An  orator  is  a  good  man,  skilled  in  speak- 
ing." This,  he  says,  was  Cato's  definition.  Professor  Shedd's  Intro- 
duction to  Theremin  gives  some  very  good  thoughts  on  the  nature  of 
eloquence. 

2  Vinet,  Horn.  p.  176,  note. 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

subject,  save  by  associating  it  with  such  ideas  as  that 
of  mother,  child,  friends,  home,  country,  heaven,  and 
the  like;  all  of  them  familiar,  and,  in  themselves, 
commonplace.  The  speaker's  task  is,  by  his  group- 
ing, illustration,  etc.,  and  by  his  own  contagious  emo- 
tion, to  invest  these  familiar  ideas  with  fresh  interest, 
so  that  they  may  reassert  their  power  over  the  hearts 
of  his  hearers.  He  who  runs  after  material  of  dis- 
course that  shall  be  absolutely  new,  may  get  credit 
for  originality,  and  be  amply  admired,  but  he  will  not 
exert  the  living  power  which  belongs  to  eloquence. 
The  preacher  can  be  really  eloquent  only  when  he 
speaks  of  those  vital  gospel  truths  which  have  neces- 
sarily become  familiar.  A  just  rhetoric,  if  there  were 
no  higher  consideration,  would  require  that  a  preacher 
shall  preach  the  gospel  —  shall  hold  on  to  the  old 
truths,  and  labor  to  clothe  them  with  new  interest  and 
power. 

§  3.      REQUISITES  TO  EFFECTIVE  PREACHING. 

They  may  be  stated  as  four,  namely,  piety,  natural 
gifts,  knowledge,  skill.^ 

(i)  Piety,  Men  sometimes  do  good  by  preaching 
who  turn  out  to  have  been  destitute  of  piety.  It  is 
one  of  the  many  wonderful  ways  in  which  God  brings 
good  out  of  evil.  But  such  cases  are  exceptional, 
and  as  a  rule,  the  prime  requisite  to  efficiency  in 
preaching  is  earnest  piety.  This  inspires  the  preacher 
himself  with  ardent  zeal,  and  keeps  the  flame  alive 
amid  all  the  icy  indifference  by  which  he  will  so  often 
be  encompassed.  This  gains  for  him  the  good-will 
and  sympathy  of  his  hearers,  the  most  ungodly  of 
whom  will  feel  that  devout  earnestness  on  his  part  is 

1  Dr.  W.  M.  Taylor  (Forum  for  March,  1887)  maintains  that  "  the 
essentials  of  eloquence  are  the  gifts,  the  cause,  occasion,  and 
audience." 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

becoming,  and  entitles  him  to  respect.  And  to  this 
is  promised  the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  labors 
which  it  prompts.  Much  false  theory  and  bad  prac- 
tice in  preaching  is  connected  with  a  failure  to  appre- 
hend the  fundamental  importance  of  piety  in  the 
preacher.  As  was  said  above  on  a  kindred  topic,  just 
rhetorical  principles,  as  well  as  other  and  far  higher 
considerations,  imperatively  require  that  a  preacher 
of  the  gospel  shall  cultivate  personal  piety.  It  is  bad 
rhetoric  to  neglect  it. 

(2)  Natural  gifts.  The  preacher  needs  the  capa- 
city for  clear  thinking,  with  strong  feelings,  and  a 
vigorous  imagination;  also  capacity  for  expression, 
and  the  power  of  forcible  utterance.  Many  other 
gifts  help  his  usefulness,  these  are  well-nigh  indispen- 
sable to  any  high  degree  of  efficiency.  Each  of  these 
can  be  improved  almost  indefinitely,  some  of  them 
developed  in  one  who  had  not  been  conscious  of  pos- 
sessing them ;  but  all  must  exist  as  natural  gifts. 

(3)  Knowledge,  There  must  be  knowledge  of 
reHgious  truth,  and  of  such  things  as  throw  light  upon 
it;  knowledge  of  human  nature  in  its  relations  to 
religious  truth,  and  of  human  life  in  its  actual  condi- 
tions around  us.  It  was  a  favorite  idea  of  Cicero 
that  the  orator  ought  to  know  everything.  There  is 
of  course  no  knowledge  which  a  preacher  might  not 
make  useful.  We  may  thankfully  recognize  the  fact 
that  some  men  do  good  who  have  very  slender  attain- 
ments, and  yet  may  insist  that  it  should  be  the 
preacher's  lowest  standard  to  surpass,  in  respect  of 
knowledge,  the  great  majority  of  those  who  hear  him, 
and  should  be  his  sacred  ambition  to  know  all  that  he 
can  learn  by  life-long  and  prayerful  endeavor. 

Piety  furnishes  motive  power ;  natural  gifts,  culti- 
vated as  far  as  possible,  supply  means;  knowledge 
gives  material;  and  there  remains  — 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

(4)  Skill,  This  does  not  refer  merely  to  style  and 
delivery,  but  also  to  the  collection,  choice,  and 
arrangement  of  materials.  All  who  preach  eminently 
well  —  and  the  same  thing  is  true  of  secular  speakers 
—  will  be  found,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  to  have 
labored  much  to  acquire  skill.  Henry  Clay,  in  an 
address  to  some  law-students  at  Albany  towards  the 
close  of  his  life,  mentioned  that  during  his  early  life 
in  Kentucky,  he  "  commenced,  and  continued  for 
years,  the  practice  of  daily  reading  and  speaking 
upon  the  contents  of  some  historical  or  scientific 
book.  These  off-hand  efforts  were  made  sometimes 
in  a  cornfield,  at  others  in  the  forest,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  in  some  distant  barn,  with  the  horse  and  the 
ox  for  my  auditors."  We  are  told  that  the  Indian 
orators  of  the  Six  Nations  were  known  to  practise 
their  speeches  beside  a  clear  pool  as  a  mirror. 
"  Patrick  Henry,  the  most  illustrious  example  of 
natural  oratory,  so  far  as  there  is  any  such,  went 
through  a  course  of  training  in  his  daily  studies  of 
human  nature  as  drawn  out  by  himself  in  his  little 
shop,  his  every-day  trials  on  his  lingering  customers 
of  the  power  of  words,  his  deep  and  enthusiastic  in- 
vestigations into  history,  and  particularly  his  patient 
and  continued  study  of  the  harangues  of  Livy  and  the 
elaborate  translations  he  made  of  them,  which,  to  say 
the  least,  is  very  uncommon."  ^  Any  one  whose  good 
fortune  it  has  been  to  be  intimate  with  some  of  those 
noble  Baptist  and  Methodist  preachers,  who  begin- 
ning with  hardly  any  education  have  worked  their 
way  up  to  the  highest  excellence  in  their  calling,  will 
have  seen  ample  proofs,  particularly  in  their  unre- 
strained private  conversation,  that  their  power  of 
clear  and  precise  expression,  and  of  forcible  and 
attractive   delivery,  is   the   result   of  sharp,    critical 

^  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  p.  18.' 


lO  INTRODUCTION. 

attention,  of  earnest  and  long-continued  labor.  The 
difference  between  skill  and  the  lack  of  it  in  speaking, 
is  almost  as  great  as  in  handling  tools,  those,  for  ex- 
ample, of  the  carpenter  or  the  blacksmith.  And 
while  no  real  skill  can  be  acquired  without  practice  — 
according  to  the  true  saying,  "  The  only  way  to  learn 
to  preach  is  to  preach "  —  yet  mere  practice  will 
never  bring  the  highest  skill;  it  must  be  heedful, 
thoughtful  practice,  with  close  observation  of  others 
and  sharp  watching  of  ourselves,  and  controlled  by 
good  sense  and  good  taste. 

Now  in  respect  of  skill,  preaching  is  an  art;  and 
while  art  cannot  create  the  requisite  powers  of  mind 
or  body,  nor  supply  their  place  if  really  absent,  it 
can  develop  and  improve  them,  and  aid  in  using  them 
to  the  best  advantage.  To  gain  skill,  then,  is  the 
object  of  rhetorical  studies,  skill  in  the  construction 
and  in  the  delivery  of  discourse. 

§  4.      ORIGIN  OF  THE  RULES   OF  RHETORIC. 

(i)  The  rules  of  Rhetoric  are  properly  the  result 
of  induction.  They  are  sometimes  spoken  of  as  if 
they  had  been  drawn  up  by  would-be  wise  men, 
who  undertook  to  tell,  on  general  principles,  how 
one  ought  to  speak.  But  they  simply  result  from 
much  thoughtful  observation  of  the  way  in  which 
men  do  speak,  when  they  speak  really  well.^  Every 
one  will  sometimes  see  occasion  to  depart  from  these 
rules ;  but  he  ought  to  understand  that  in  disregard- 
ing the  "  rules  of  Rhetoric,"  he  is  not  nobly  spurn- 
ing artificial  fetters  and  barriers,  but  simply  turning 
aside,  for  the  time,  and  for  good  reason,  from  the 
path  in  which  it  is  usually  found  best  to  walk.  And 
to  do  this  will  be  wise  or  not  wise,  according  as  there 

1  Comp.  Cicero,  De  Orat.  c.  xxiii. 


INTRODUCTION.  ll 

IS  real  occasion  for  it,  and  it  is  well  managed.  So 
too,  we  notice,  men  of  sense  often  exactly  conform 
to  these  rules,  without  knowing  anything  about  them ; 
for  this  is  only  saying  that  they  speak  exactly  as  men 
of  sense  usually  do.^ 

(2)  What  we  call  rules  are  but  the  convenient 
expression  of  a  principle.  They  put  the  principle 
into  a  compact  form,  so  as  to  be  easily  remembered 
and  readily  applied.  But  the  rule,  however  judi- 
ciously framed,  can  never  be  as  flexible  as  the  prin- 
ciple it  represents.  There  will  therefore  be  cases, 
and  as  regards  some  rules  many  cases,  in  which  one 
may  violate  the  rule  and  yet  be  really  conforming  to  the 
principle^  these  being  cases  in  which  the  principle 
would  bend,  and  adapt  itself  to  peculiar  conditions, 
while  the  rule  cannot  bend.  This  consideration 
explains  many  of  the  instances  in  which  a  speaker 
produces  a  powerful  effect  though  utterly  violating 
the  rules  of  rhetoric.  Other  such  instances  are  ex- 
plained by  the  sort  of  shock  produced  by  a  depart- 
ure from  what  is  usual,  as  the  sleeping  miller  will 
wake  when  the  mill  stops.  And  in  still  other  cases 
the  effect  is  produced  by  a  man's  power  in  other 
respects,  in  spite  of  the  particular  violation  of  rule. 

§  5.      DANGERS  OF  RHETORICAL  STUDIES. 

(i)  Thinking  more  of  the  form  than  the  matter. 
Rhetoric  has  to  do  with  the  use  we  make  of  material, 
the  choice,  adaptation,  arrangement,  expression. 
But  after  all,  the  material  itself  is  more  important 
We  hold  that  Demosthenes  did  not  mean  to  con- 
tradict this,  when  he  said  (if  he  ever  did  in  fact  say 
it),  that  the  first  thing,  second  thing,  third  thing  in 
speaking  is  delivery.     He  took  the  other  for  granted, 

1  Comp.  Whately's  Rhetoric,  p.  33  ff. 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

No  man  has  ever  surpassed  Demosthenes,  in  thorough 
mastery  of  the  subjects  upon  which  he  spoke.  But 
delivery  had  been  with  him  a  matter  of  peculiar 
difficulty,  his  deficiencies  in  that  respect  had  de- 
feated his  early  attempts,  and  his  subsequent  excel- 
lence had  been  gained  only  by  enormous  labor;  it 
was  natural  that  he  should  lay  stress  upon  its  import- 
ance, supposing  that  no  man  of  sense  could  overlook 
the  necessity  of  being  fully  acquainted  with  his  sub- 
ject. Now  the  things  which  ought  most  to  be  thought 
of  by  the  preacher,  are  piety  and  knowledge,  and  the 
blessing  of  God.  Skill,  however  valuable,  is  far  less 
important  than  these ;  and  there  is  danger  that  rhe- 
torical studies  will  cause  men  to  forget  that  such 
is  the  case.  It  is  lamentable  to  see  how  often  the 
remarks  upon  preaching  made  by  preachers  them- 
selves, in  conversation  and  in  newspaper  critiques, 
are  confined  to  a  discussion  of  the  performance  and 
the  performer.  Unsympathizing  listeners  or  readers 
have,  in  such  cases,  too  much  ground  for  concluding 
that  preachers  are  anxious  only  to  display  skill,  and 
gain  oratorical  reputation. 

(2)  Imitation.  All  are  aware  that  there  is  both  a 
conscious  and  an  unconscious  imitation.  That  which 
is  unconscious  is  of  course  not  so  blameworthy,  but 
it  cannot  fail  to  be  injurious,  and  it  is  a  subtle  evil 
which  should  be  guarded  against  with  the  sharpest 
self-inspection.  Every  one  observes,  too,  that  imita- 
tors are  especially  apt  to  imitate  a  man's  faults.  The 
reason  is  easily  seen.  The  excellencies  of  a  good 
speaker  are  apt  to  be  symmetrical,  while  his  faults 
are  salient,  prominent.  The  latter,  therefore,  will 
most  readily  attract  unconscious  imitation.  As  to 
the  conscious  imitator,  he  is  sure  to  be  a  superficial 
observer,  who  will  think  that  what  he  notices  most 
in  some  admired  speaker  is  the  secret  of  his  power, 


INTRODUCTION.  I3 

and  will  go  to  imitating  that.  Besides,  it  is  easier  to 
ape  the  single,  salient  fault,  than  the  symmetrical 
combination  of  many  excellencies. 

Is  the  danger  of  imitation  increased  by  attendance 
upon  institutions  of  learning?  Hardly.  He  who  is 
so  susceptible  on  the  one  hand,  or  on  the  other  hand 
so  silly,  as  to  fall  readily  into  it,  will  find  some  one 
to  imitate,  wherever  he  may  be.  Every  country 
district  has  some  favorite  preacher,  whom  others 
around  may  be  seen  to  imitate.  When  many  of 
these  imitators  are  gathered  at  a  public  institution, 
the  men  they  imitate  are  fewer  and  more  generally 
known,  and  therefore  the  fact  attracts  more  atten- 
tion. On  the  other  hand,  they  are  more  likely  to 
have  pointed  out  to  them  the  danger  and  the  evils 
of  imitation,  so  as  utterly  to  eschew  that  which  is 
conscious,  and  promptly  to  correct  the  unconscious, 
when  made  aware  of  it.  Nor  is  there  any  greater 
danger  of  such  imitation  at  a  theological  institution 
than  at  a  college  or  university.  Still,  some  men  are 
very  liable  to  this  fault,  and  when  about  to  hear  the 
same  speaker  several  times  a  week  for  many  months, 
all  ought  to  be  on  their  guard  against  imitating  his 
peculiarities.^ 

(3)  Artificiality,  There  is  much  artificiality  which 
ought  not  to  be  called  by  the  odious  name  of  affec- 
tation.    The  speaker's  motives  are  good ;  he  merely 

'  1  "  Melanchthon  carried  one  shoulder  higher  than  the  other,  and 
the  pupils  believed  themselves  Melanchthons  if  they  imitated  his 
posture."  Hagenbach,  Homiletik,  s.  142.  Spurgeon's  students  are 
constantly  accused  of  imitating  him.  Those  who  are  anxious  on 
this  subject  ought  to  be  apprised  of  another  danger,  which  they  may 
not  have  thought  of.  Some  years  ago,  a  certain  professor  heard 
one  of  his  students  preach  several  times  at  a  protracted  meeting,  and 
then  preached  himself.  In  the  midst  of  the  sermon,  he  caught  him- 
self distinctly  imitating  certain  peculiar  tones  of  his  esteemed 
young  brother.  Think  of  that  1  The  professors  may  imitate  the 
students  I 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

errs  in  judgment  and  taste.  But  a  great  error  it  is. 
In  all  speaking,  especially  in  preaching,  naturalness, 
genuineness,  even  though  awkward,  is  really  more 
effective  for  all  the  highest  ends,  than  the  most 
elegant  artificiality.  "But  it  is  the  highest  art  to 
conceal  art."  Nay,  no  art  can  conceal  art.  We 
may  not  perceive  it,  but  we  dimly,  instinctively  feel 
that  there  is  something  the  matter,  and  perhaps 
wonder  what  it  is;  somehow,  the  preacher's  well- 
meant  efforts  are  failing  to  reach  their  aim.  The 
danger  of  artificiality  in  speaking  is  very  great. 
When  one  begins,  he  is  apt  to  feel  awkward  in  the 
new  and  strange  situation.  As  one  unaccustomed  to 
riding  on  horseback  must  learn  to  sit  naturally,  and 
feel  at  ease,  in  the  saddle,  so  very  many  speakers, 
perhaps  all,  have  to  learn  to  be  natural.  They  must 
not  only  reject  all  intentional  artificiality,  but  must 
carefully  guard  against  that  which  is  undesigned  and 
unconscious.  To  forget  self,  because  full  of  living 
desire  to  do  men  good,  is  the  great  means  of  being 
natural.  It  follows  that  a  preacher  ought  never  to 
preach  merely  for  practice ;  this  will  inevitably  tend 
to  encourage  artificiality.  The  first  few  efforts  of  a 
young  man  —  which  will  often  go  much  farther  than 
he  is  at  the  time  aware  to  form  his  habits  for  life  — 
ought  to  be  genuine,  bona  fide  preaching.  If  he  ever 
preaches  in  the  presence  of  none  but  his  fellow- 
students  and  instructors,  it  ought  to  be  only  upon 
a  subject  thoroughly  suited  to  their  religious  wants, 
and  with  a  most  earnest  and  prayerful  effort  to  do 
them  good.^ 

1  It  is  believed  that  the  plan  of  causing  students  to  preach  before 
the  class  results,  upon  the  whole,  in  more  harm  than  good,  and  that 
it  ought  to  be  avoided.  Let  them  preach  where  it  can  be  real  preach- 
ing, or  not  at  all.  Even  the  debating  society  proposes  a  present  end 
to  be  gained,  and  awakens  some  living  interest.  Hervey  (Christian 
Rhetoric,  p.  518)  coincides  with  this  view  and  quotes  approvingly 


INTRODUCTION.  IS 

As  regards  all  that  pertains  to  preaching,  and  espe- 
cially delivery,  our  efforts  at  rhetorical  improvement 
must  be  mainly  negative.  We  endeavor  to  gain  cor- 
rect general  principles,  and  some  idea  of  the  errors 
and  faults  to  which  speakers  are  generally  liable. 
We  then  speak,  aiming  to  be  guided  by  these  prin- 
ciples, and  to  correct  our  faults  as  they  may  arise. 
It  is  unwise  to  set  up  at  the  outset  some  standard 
of  excellence,  and  aim  to  conform  to  that.  If  one 
should  take  a  fancy  that  cedar-trees  are  more  beauti- 
ful than  oaks,  and  attempt  to  trim  his  oaks  into  the 
shape,  and  color  them  into  the  hue,  of  cedars,  the  result 
could  only  be  ridiculous.  Let  the  young  cedar  grow  as 
a  cedar,  and  the  young  oak  as  an  oak,  but  straighten, 
prune,  improve  each  of  them  into  the  best  possible 
tree  of  its  kind.  And  so  as  to  speaking,  be  always 
yourself,  your  actual,  natural  self,  but  yourself  de- 
veloped, corrected,  improved  into  the  very  best  you 
are  by  nature  capable  of  becoming. 

§  6.    RELATION  OF  HOMILETICS  TO  RHETORIC. 

The  Greek  word  homilia  signifies  conversation, 
mutual  talk,  and  so  familiar  discourse.  The  Latin 
word  sermo  (from  which  we  get  sermon)  has  the  same 
sense,  of  conversation,  talk,  discussion.  It  is  instruc- 
tive to  observe  that  the  early  Christians  did  not  at 
first  apply  to  their  public  teachings  the  names  given 
to  the  orations  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero,  but  called 
them  talksy  familiar  discourses.  Under  the  influence 
of  rhetorical  teaching  and  the  popularizing  of  Chris- 
tian worship,  the  talk  soon  became  a  more  formal  and 
extended  discourse ;  and  though  the  title  homily  was 
still  used,  the  sermon  in  later  times  partook  more  of 

from  Stier  and  Rothe.  Stier  says,  "  He  who  has  been  wont  to  preach 
to  benches  as  if  they  were  men  will  afterwards  preach  to  men  as  if 
they  were  benches." 


I6  INTRODUCTION. 

the  character  of  an  oration,  and  was  often  called  a 
logosy  or  discourse.^  From  this  word  homily  has  been 
derived  (after  the  analogy  of  mathematics,  physics,  and 
similar  words)  the  term  homiletics,  as  denoting  the 
science  or  art  of  Christian  discourse,  or  a  treatise 
on  that  subject,  embracing  all  that  pertains  to  the 
preparation  and  delivery  of  sermons.  Hoppin  ^  gives 
the  following  definition :  "  Homiletics  is  the  science 
that  teaches  the  fundamental  principles  of  public  dis- 
course as  applied  to  the  proclamation  and  teaching 
of  divine  truth  in  regular  assemblies  gathered  for  the 
purpose  of  Christian  worship.'*  Phelps^  defines  : 
'*  Homiletics  is  the  science  which  treats  of  the  na- 
ture, the  classification,  the  analysis,  the  construction, 
and  the  composition  of  a  sermon.  More  concisely,  it 
is  the  science  of  that  of  which  preaching  is  the  ^r/,  and 
a  sermon  is  the  product''  Homiletics  may  be  called 
a  branch  of  rhetoric,  or  a  kindred  art.  Those  funda- 
mental principles  which  have  their  basis  in  human 
nature  are  of  course  the  same  in  both  cases,  and  this 
being  so,  it  seems  clear  that  we  must  regard  homi- 
letics as  rhetoric  applied  to  this  particular  kind  of 
speaking.  Still,  preaching  is  properly  very  different 
from  secular  discourse,  as  to  the  primary  source  of  its 
materials,  as  to  the  directness  and  simplicity  of  style 
which  become  the  preacher,  and  the  unworldly  motives 
by  which  he  ought  to  be  influenced.  And  while  these 
and  other  peculiarities  do  not  render  it  proper  to  treat 
homiletics  as  entirely  distinct  from  rhetoric,^  they 
ought  to  be  constantly  borne  in  mind  by  the  stu- 
dent of  homiletics  and  by  the  working  preacher.^ 

1  Paniel,  Gesch.  der  Christl.  Beredsamkeit,  s.  265,  note. 

2  Homiletics,  p.  9. 

*  Theory  of  Preaching,  p.  i. 

*  As  proposed  by  Kidder,  p.  19  ff. 

5  Nothing  would  really  be  gained  by  substituting,  as  some  Ger- 
man writers  propose,  the  term  keryktik,  from  the  Greek  kerux,  a 
herald,  and  in  the  N.  T.  a  preacher. 


INTRODUCTION.  1/ 

§  7.    THE  STUDY  OF  HOMILETICS. 

It  is  evident  that  both  to  the  student  for  the  minis- 
try and  to  the  active  pastor,  attention  to  this  subject 
is  of  the  utmost  importance.  It  is  proposed  to  offer 
here  some  suggestions  toward  a  profitable  pursuit  of 
the  study. 

The  literature  of  homiletics  is  ample  and  worthy. 
There  are  multitudes  of  able  and  good  books  of  all 
ages  and  languages,  books  which  bear  more  or  less 
directly  upon  the  subject.  General  treatises  on  rhet- 
oric, elocution,  and  kindred  topics  abound,  and  many 
of  these  are  well  worthy  of  the  preacher's  careful  read- 
ing. In  recent  times,  with  the  revived  interest  in  the 
study  of  English  in  our  colleges  and  universities,  there 
has  been  put  forth  a  large  number  of  rhetorical  trea- 
tises. From  these  back  to  the  still  useful  works  of 
the  ancient  masters,  there  is  a  long  line  of  excellent 
discussions  of  the  fundamental  and  permanent  prin- 
ciples of  rhetorical  science. 

Then  there  is  a  very  complete,  and  for  the  most 
part  valuable,  literature  of  homiletics  proper.  These 
treatises  discuss  preaching  from  almost  every  conceiv- 
able point  of  view.  Many  noble  and  useful  works 
have  been  produced  in  our  own  country,  and  they 
are  noted  for  practical  value  and  thoroughness  of 
treatment.  There  are  also  a  few  works,  but  not  so 
many  nor  so  good  as  could  be  wished,  on  the  history 
of  oratory  and  of  preaching,  that  are  helpful  in  the 
study  of  homiletics.  For  a  brief  critical  survey  of 
the  best  known  and  most  useful  works  in  this  depart- 
ment, the  student  is  referred  to  the  bibliography  at 
the  end  of  this  volume. 

Besides  treatises  on  preaching,  the  chief  sources  of 
instruction  in  homiletics  are  as  follows:  (i)  Th^ 
preaching  that  we  hear,  when  heard  with  fraternal 


I8  INTRODUCTION. 

sympathy  and  prayerful  desire  for  spiritual  benefit, 
and  yet  with  critical  attention.  (2)  Published  ser- 
mons, the  value  of  which  is  readily  acknowledged. 
(3)  Biographies  of  preachers,  which  to  one  having  a 
general  knowledge  of  homiletics,  are  often  surpass- 
ingly instructive.  (4)  The  criticism  of  instruc- 
tors or  judicious  hearers  upon  our  own  preaching. 
(5)  Careful  observation  of  our  faults,  as  developed 
in  actual  practice,  with  resolute  and  patient  effort  to 
correct  them. 


pavtt 

MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  TEXT  —  SELECTION. 


I  I.  Meaning  of  the  Term. 
2.  Advantages    of   Having 
Text. 


§  3.  Rules  for  the    Selection 
OF  A  Text. 


§   I.      MEANING  OF  THE  TERM. 

THE  word  text  is  derived  from  the  Latin  texerCy  to 
weave;  which  figuratively  came  to  signify  to 
put  together,  to  construct,^  and  hence  to  compose, 
to  express  thought  in  continuous  speech  or  writing. 
The  noun  textus  thus  denotes  the  product  of  weav- 
ing, the  web,  the  fabric,  and  so  in  literary  usage  the 
fabric  of  one's  thinking,  continuous  composition, 
written  or,  in  later  times,  printed.  The  practice  arose 
of  reading  the  continuous  narrative  or  discussion  of 
some  author  and  adding  comments,  chiefly  explana- 
tory; or  of  taking  the  author's  own  writing  and 
making  notes  at  the  sides  or  bottom  of  the  page. 
Thus  the  author's  own  work  came  to  be  called  the 
texty  that  is,  the  continuous,  connected  composition  as 
distinguished  from  the  fragmentary  notes  and  com- 
ments of  the  editor  or  speaker.  This  use  of  the  word 
still  survives,  as  when  we  speak  of  the  text  of  ancient 
authors  or  others,  meaning  their  own  original  com- 

1  Comp.  texture,  context,  etc 


20  THE   TEXT  — SELECTION. 

position ;  and  text-criticism  is  the  science  of  determin- 
ing what  was  their  exact  language.  So  in  school 
usage  a  text-book  is  so  called  because  it  is  the  work  of 
the  author  studied,  to  whose  continuous  discussion 
the  teacher  adds  notes  or  comments  in  questioning 
or  explaining  in  the  class.  Now,  early  preaching  was 
of  the  nature  of  familiar  running  commentary  on  the 
connected  train  of  thought,  or  texty  of  Scripture, 
which  was  so  named  to  distinguish  it  from  the 
preacher's  comment  or  exposition.  As  the  practice 
grew  of  lengthening  the  comments  into  an  orderly 
discourse,  and  of  shortening  the  passage  of  Scripture 
expounded,  the  word  text  has  come  to  mean  the  por- 
tion of  Scripture  chosen  as  the  suggestion  or  founda- 
tion for  a  sermon.^ 

The  history  of  the  word,  like  that  of  homileticSy 
points  back  to  the  fact,  which  is  also  well  known 
otherwise,  that  preaching  was  originally  expository. 
The  early  Christian  preachers  commonly  spoke  upon 
passages  of  considerable  length,  and  occupied  them- 
selves largely  with  exposition.  Frequently,  how- 
ever, as  was  natural,  they  would  find  a  brief  passage 
so  fruitful  as  to  confine  themselves  to  it  Usage 
tended  more  and  more  toward  the  preference  of  short 
texts.  In  England  in  the  seventeenth  century,  it  was 
not  uncommon  to  make  many  sermons  on  some  brief 
passage.  Thus  John  Howe  has  fourteen  sermons  on 
a  part  of  Rom.  viii.  24,  **  We  are  saved  by  hope ;  " 
seventeen  on  i  John  iv.  20;  and  eighteen  on  John 
iii.  6.  The  object  was  to  make  a  complete  discussion 
of  some  great  topic,  and  to  bind  all  the  discourses  into 
a  whole  by  connecting  all  with  the  same  text.     But 

1  Hagenbach  has  explained  the  word  correctly  (Horn.  s.  96), 
Shedd  (Horn.  p.  159)  has  clearly  mistaken  it.  Also  Phelps  (Theory 
of  Preaching,  p.  45) ;  and  Hoppin  (Horn.  p.  288)  seems  to  mistake, 
though  his  language  is  not  clear. 


THE  TEXT  — SELECTION.  21 

this  practice  conflicted  with  the  natural  love  of  variety. 
It  is  usually  much  better  to  make  a  series  appear  such 
by  the  manifest  relation  of  the  subjects,  and  to  choose 
for  each  discourse  a  separate  text,  which  presents  the 
particular  subject  or  view  there  discussed.  This  is  at 
present  the  common  practice,  it  being  a  somewhat 
rare  thing  now  to  preach  more  than  one  sermon  on 
the  same  brief  text.  There  is  also  a  tendency  at 
present  to  return  to  the  more  frequent  use  of  long 
texts.^ 

§  2.      ADVANTAGES  OF  HAVING  A  TEXT. 

Taking  a  text  is  an  old  and  well  established  custom 
from  which  there  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  for  de- 
parting ;  especially  as  the  change  would  be  sure  to 
prove  distasteful  or  even  painful  to  many  worthy  and 
devout  hearers  of  preaching.  Moreover,  the  custom 
is  founded  in  excellent  reason,  and  has  marked 
advantages. 

It  is  manifest  that  to  take  a  text  gives  a  tone  of 
sacredness  to  the  discourse.  But  more  than  this  is 
true.  The  primary  idea  is  that  the  discourse  is  a 
development  of  the  text,  an  explanation,  illustration, 
application  of  its  teachings.  Our  business  is  to  teach 
God's  word.  And  although  we  may  often  discuss  sub- 
jects, and  aspects  of  subjects,  which  are  not  presented 
in  precisely  that  form  by  any  passage  of  Scripture,  yet 
the  fundamental  conception  should  be  habitually  re- 
tained, that  we  are  about  to  set  forth  what  the  text 
contains.  When  circumstances  determine  the  subject 
to  be  treated,  and  we  have  to  look  for  a  text,  one  can 
almost  always  be  found  which  will  have  some  real, 
though  it  be  a  general  relation  to  the  subject.  If 
there  be  rare  cases  in  which  it  is  otherwise,  it  will 

^  Compare  below,  Part  II.  chap,  iii.  §  3,  on  Expository  Sermons. 


22  THE  TEXT  — SELECTION. 

then  be  better  to  have  no  text  than  one  with  which 
the  subject  has  only  a  fanciful  or  forced  connection. 

There  are  several  advantages  in  regularly  taking  a 
text,  (i)  It  constantly  recalls  the  fact  just  men- 
tioned, that  our  undertaking  is  not  to  guide  the 
people  by  our  own  wisdom,  but  to  impart  to  them 
the  teachings  of  God  in  his  Word.  This  fact  enables 
us  to  speak  with  confidence,  and  leads  the  people  to 
recognize  the  authority  of  what  we  say.  (2)  If  the 
text  is  well  chosen,  it  awakens  interest  at  the  outset 
(3)  It  often  aids  the  hearer  in  remembering  the  train 
of  thought,  having  this  effect  wherever  the  sermon  is 
really  evolved  from  the  text.  (4)  It  affords  oppor- 
tunity of  explaining  and  impressing  some  passage  of 
Scripture.  (5)  It  tends  to  prevent  our  wandering 
utterly  away  from  Scriptural  topics  and  views. 
(6)  Greater  variety  will  be  gained  than  if  the  mind 
were  left  altogether  to  the  suggestion  of  circum- 
stances, for  then  it  will  often  fall  back  into  its  old 
ruts ;  and  this  variety  is  attained  just  in  proportion 
as  one  restricts  himself  to  the  specific  thought  of 
each  particular  text. 

Objections  to  the  use  of  texts  have  commonly 
arisen  from  one  of  two  or  three  causes.  The  griev- 
ous laxity  in  the  interpretation  of  texts  which  has  so 
widely  prevailed,  leads  some  men  to  regard  the  em- 
ployment of  them  as  wrong  or  useless.  This  is  the 
old  story  —  the  abuse  of  a  thing  causing  men  to 
question  the  propriety  of  its  use.  Again,  persons 
who  have  little  or  no  true  reverence  for  Scripture,  or 
appreciation  of  its  riches,  speak  of  the  text  as  a  re- 
striction upon  freedom  of  thought  and  flow  of  elo- 
quence. Thus  Voltaire :  "  It  were  to  be  wished  that 
Bourdaloue  in  banishing  from  the  pulpit  the  bad 
taste  which  disgraced  it,  had  also  banished  the  custom 
of  preaching  on  a  text.     Indeed,  to  speak  long  on  a 


THE  TEXT  — SELECTION.  23 

quotation  of  a  line  or  two,  to  exhaust  one's  self  in 
subjecting  a  whole  discourse  to  the  control  of  this 
line,  seems  a  trifling  labor,  little  worthy  of  the  dig- 
nity of  the  ministry.  The  text  becomes  a  sort  of 
motto,  or  rather  enigma,  which  the  discourse  de- 
velops." ^  It  seems  plain  that  this  sneer  arose  partly 
from  the  torturing  interpretation  so  often  witnessed, 
and  chiefly  from  the  critic's  want  of  reverence  for  the 
Bible,  and  ignorance  of  the  preacher's  true  relation 
to  the  Bible.  And  perhaps,  as  a  third  ground  of 
objection  to  texts,  some  able  and  devout  preachers, 
disHking  expository  and  even  textual  preaching,  and 
wishing  that  every  sermon  should  be  a  philosophical 
discussion  or  an  elaborate  discourse  upon  a  definite 
topic,  incline  to  regard  the  custom  of  always  taking  a 
text  as  an  inconvenient  restriction.  Such  appears  to 
have  been  the  feeling  of  Vinet. 

It  is  sometimes  not  unsuitable  to  have  two  texts,  or 
even  more.  Thus  with  Heb.  ix.  22,  "And  without 
shedding  of  blood  is  no  remission,"  there  might  be 
united  i  John  i.  7,  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his 
Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin."  Or  with  Isa.  vi.  3, 
**  The  whole  earth  is  full  of  his  glory,"  may  be  taken 
Psa.  Ixxii.  19,  "  And  let  the  whole  earth  be  filled  with 
his  glory;  "  to  angelic  eyes  it  is  so  —  the  human  mind 
can  only  pray  that  it  may  be  so.  (Comp.  Hab.  ii. 
14.)  Spurgeon  has  a  sermon  on  the  words,  "  I  have 
sinned,"  as  occurring  seven  times  in  the  Bible,  and 
gives  interesting  views  of  the  different  circumstances 
and  states  of  mind  in  which  they  were  uttered.^ 

§  3.      RULES  FOR  THE  SELECTION  OF  TEXTS. 

The  proper  selection  of  a  text  is  a  matter  of  great 
importance.     A   felicitous   choice   will   animate   the 

1  Voltaire,  Age  of  Louis  XIV.    Quoted  by  Vinet,  Horn.,  p.  99. 
•  Amer.  ed.  of  Spurgeon's  Sermons,  Third  Series,  p.  241. 


24  THE  TEXT  — SELECTION. 

preacher  throughout  the  preparation  and  the  delivery 
of  his  sermon,  and  will  help  him  to  gain  at  once  the 
attention  of  his  hearers.  There  are  few  points  as  to 
which  preachers  differ  more  widely  in  talent  and  skill 
than  the  selection  of  texts,  and  few  in  which  diligent 
and  systematic  effort  will  be  more  richly  rewarded. 
The  minister,  or  student  for  the  ministry,  should  keep 
a  blank  book  for  lists  of  texts.  In  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures and  books  of  theology,  in  reading  collections 
of  sermons,  biographies,  and  newspaper  notices,  in 
casual  reflection  and  in  the  preparation  of  other  ser- 
mons, passages  will  be  constantly  occurring  upon 
which  it  strikes  one  that  he  could  make  a  sermon. 
Let  these  be  at  once  written  down  in  the  list.  Let 
the  preacher  constrain  himself  to  do  so,  until  it  be- 
comes a  habit.  And  he  should  by  all  means  put 
down  at  the  same  time,  however  briefly,  the  proposed 
outline  of  the  discourse,  or  any  specially  valuable 
view  or  illustration  of  it,  which  he  is  not  sure  will 
return  to  his  mind  whenever  the  text  is  looked  at. 
Otherwise  he  will  afterward  find  many  passages  in  the 
list  that  it  will  seem  strange  he  should  ever  have  noted, 
because  the  association  will  have  been  broken,  the 
point  of  view  will  have  disappeared.  At  some  times 
the  mind  is  in  a  highly  creative  mood,  and  plans  of 
sermons  or  suggestive  texts  or  topics  will  rapidly 
succeed  one  another,  as  the  preacher  reads,  reflects, 
or  visits  from  house  to  house.  These  fruitful  germs 
should  be  carefully  husbanded,  and  the  lines  of  de- 
velopment indicated.  And  often  when  one  is  cold 
and  lifeless,  and  could  at  the  moment  produce  noth- 
ing, some  good  thought  which  was  struck  out  in  a 
happier  mood  will  fall  into  his  mind  like  a  spark,  and 
presently  set  it  all  on  fire.  Many  an  admirable  text, 
and  many  a  golden  thought,  given  to  men  in  their 
better  moments,  are  lost  forever,  when  a  brief  record, 


THE  TEXT  — SELECTION.  2$ 

or  even  some  little  effort  to  associate  them  in  mind 
with  other  things,  might  have  made  them  a  permanent 
possession.^ 

To  aid  in  the  selection  of  texts,  there  are  offered 
the  following  rules. 

(i)  T/te  text  should  not  be  obsctcre.  It  ought,  as 
a  rule,  to  exhibit  its  meaning  readily.  Otherwise, 
the  people  will  either  be  repelled  by  what  they  see 
no  sense  in,  or  will  be  apt  to  feel  a  merely  idle  curi- 
osity to  know  what  in  the  world  the  preacher  will 
make  of  that.  Still,  there  are  important  exceptions 
here.  If  the  preacher  is  satisfied  that  he  can  explain 
an  obscure  passage,  and  can  show  that  it  teaches  val- 
uable truth,  he  may  take  it.  If  the  passage  is  one 
about  which  many  are  known  to  feel  interested,  and 
he  is  really  able  to  make  its  meaning  clear,  and  bring 
out  useful  lessons,  it  may  be  very  wise  to  employ  it. 
But  observe  the  stress  that  is  laid  on  the  practicabil- 
ity of  making  the  passage  instructive  and  useful.  To 
explain  merely  for  the  sake  of  explaining,  is  a  task 
for  which  the  preacher  scarcely  has  time.  It  is  his 
business  to  teach  the  people  lessons  of  real  utility, 
either  as  regards  doctrine  or  practice.^ 

(2)  One  must  be  careful  as  to  employing  texts 
"  marked  by  grandeur  of  expression.  They  seem,  to 
promise  a  great  effort^  ^  And  if  great  expectations 
are  excited  at  the  outset,  it  is  of  course  very  difficult 
to  meet  them.  Yet  no  one  would  say  as  a  rule  that 
such  texts  must  be  avoided.     Many  of  the  noblest 

^  For  numerous  striking  specimens,  not  of  texts  but  of  thoughts 
thus  recorded,  see  Life  of  John  Foster,  Vol.  I.  pp.  108-156.  Compare 
Alexander,  "Thoughts  on  Preaching,"  p.  513. 

2  See  further  in  what  is  said  on  Expository  Preaching,  Part  II. 
chap,  iii.,  and  comp.  Phelps,  "Theory  of  Preaching,"  pp.  84-91,  for  a 
very  sensible  and  more  extended  treatment  of  the  comparative  ad- 
vantages of  perspicuous  and  obscure  texts. 

«  Ripley. 


26  THE  TEXT  — SELECTION. 

and  most  impressive  passages  of  Scripture  rise  into 
a  natural  grandeur  of  expression,  and  there  would 
be  serious  loss  in  habitually  avoiding  these.  Some- 
times we  may  find  a  simpler  text  that  presents  the 
same  subject,  and  the  grander  passage  can  be  intro- 
duced somewhere  in  the  course  of  the  sermon.  But 
when  such  a  passage  is  made  the  text,  we  may  pre- 
vent any  undesirable  effect  by  announcing  it  with 
unaffected  modesty,  and  by  the  general  tone  of  the 
introduction;  perhaps  even  saying  —  not  as  an  apol- 
ogy but  a  quiet  remark  —  something  to  the  effect 
that  of  course  none  of  us  can  rise  to  the  height  of 
this  great  passage,  and  yet  it  may  do  us  good  to 
meditate  upon  its  teachings.  We  must  carefully 
avoid  whatever  course  would  savor  of  display,  but 
must  not  fastidiously  shrink  from  treating  any  pas- 
sage which  we  may  hope  to  make  useful. 

(3)  It  is  scarcely  ever  proper  to  choose  a  text  that 
will  seem  odd.  When  humor  is  employed  in  preach- 
ing it  ought  to  be  an  incidental  thing,  and  manifestly 
unstudied.  It  is  so  natural  for  some  men  to  indulge 
in  quaint,  and  even  in  very  odd  sayings,  they  so 
promptly  and  easily  fall  back  into  their  prevailing 
seriousness,  that  the  humorous  remarks  are  unobjec- 
tionable, and  sometimes,  through  the  well-known 
relation  between  humor  and  pathos,  they  heighten 
the  effect.  But  an  effort  to  be  amusing,  anything 
odd  that  appears  to  have  been  calculated,  is  felt  to  be 
incompatible  with  a  genuine  seriousness  and  solem- 
nity. Now  the  text  has  of  course  been  deliberately 
chosen,  and  an  odd  text  must  therefore  have  a  bad 
effect.  Yet  there  are  sayings  of  Scripture  that  seem 
quaint,  which  an  earnest  man  may  employ  to  good 
purpose.  For  example,  William  Jay  has  a  good 
sermon  upon  Hos.  vii.  8,  "Ephraim  is  a  cake  not 
turned." 


THE   TEXT  — SELECTION.  2J 

(4)  Do  not  avoid  a  text  because  it  is  familiar. 
What  has  made  some  texts  familiar  to  all,  but  the 
fact  that  they  are  so  manifestly  good  texts?  It  is 
a  very  mistaken  desire  for  novelty  which  leads  a  man 
to  shrink  from  such  rich  and  fruitful  passages  as 
**  God  so  loved  the  world,"  etc. ;  "  This  is  a  faith- 
ful saying,"  etc.,  which  Luther  used  to  call  "  little 
Bibles,"  as  if  including  in  their  narrow  compass  the 
whole  Bible. ^  He  who  will  turn  away  from  the 
tradition  of  the  pulpit  as  to  the  meaning  and  appli- 
cation of  such  passages,  and  make  personal  and 
earnest  study  of  them,  will  often  find  much  that  is 
new  to  him  and  his  hearers,  as  the  skilful  gold-hunter 
in  California  will  sometimes  follow  in  the  very  track 
of  many  searchers,  and  gain  there  his  richest  harvest. 
Besides,  what  we  need  is  not  absolute  novelty,  but 
simply  freshness.  If  we  can  manage,  by  prayerful 
reflection,  to  obtain  such  views  and  provide  such 
illustrations  of  a  familiar  text  as  will  give  it  a  fresh 
interest  to  ourselves  and  the  hearers,  then  all  the 
riches  of  the  passage  are  made  available  for  good. 
Alexander  2  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  of  the 
great  sculptors  and  painters  many  took  the  same 
themes ;  and  so  with  the  Greek  tragedians.  He  re- 
marks :  **  Some,  anxious  to  avoid  hackneyed  topics, 
omit  the  greatest;  just  as  if  we  should  describe 
Switzerland  and  omit  the  Alps."  In  point  of  fact, 
the  great  preachers,  all  the  best  preachers,  do 
preach  much  upon  the  great  texts  and  the  great 
subjects.  How  is  a  feebler  man  ever  to  develop  his 
own  strength,  unless  he  grapples  with  great  themes? 
One  may  show  skill,  and  add  somewhat  to  the  har- 
vest, by  cultivating  out-of-the-way  corners  and  un- 
promising ledges  of  rock ;  but  the  bulk  of  the  crop, 

1  See  Hood,  Lamps,  Pitchers,  etc.,  p.  591. 

2  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  pp.  lo-ia. 


28  THE   TEXT  — SELECTION. 

by  which  the  family  are  fed,  must  come  from  the 
broad,  open  field. 

(5)  Do  not  habitually  neglect  any  portion  of  Scrip- 
ture. Some  neglect  the  Old  Testament,  thus  losing  all 
its  rich  unfolding  of  God's  character  and  the  methods 
of  his  Providence,  all  its  unnumbered  illustrations  of 
human  life  and  duty,  and  its  many  types  and  predic- 
tions of  the  coming  Saviour,  Others  preach  on  the 
Old  Testament  almost  exclusively.  These  are  'either 
men  who  take  no  delight  in  the  "  doctrines  of  grace," 
in  the  spirituality  of  the  gospel ;  or  men  devoted  to 
fanciful  allegorizing,  who  do  not  enjoy  the  straight- 
forward teaching  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  so  much 
as  their  own  wild  **  spiritualizing"  of  everything  in 
the  Old  Testament  history,  prophecies,  and  proverbs.^ 

Let  us  not  neglect  either  of  these  great  divisions  of 
God's  own  Word.  And  so  as  to  particular  books. 
In  the  course  of  a  good  many  years  a  preacher  ought 
to  have  taken  some  texts  from  every  portion  of  Scrip- 
ture, though  he  will  of  course  choose  most  frequently 
from  those  books  to  which  attention  is  directed  by 
his  peculiar  mental  constitution  and  tastes,  or  by 
their  comparative  richness  in  evangelical  and  prac- 
tical matter. 

(6)  Do  not  take  spurious  passages.  Those  which 
are  certainly  spurious  may  be  avoided  by  the  use  of 
the  Revised  (Canterbury)  Version  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  Revisers  were  very  conservative  as  to  the 
text,  and  any  passage  omitted  in  that  Version  may  be 
safely  assumed  to  be  spurious.  In  regard  to  doubt- 
ful passages  help  may  be  had,  in  addition  to  the 
Revised  Version,  from  Westcott  and  Hort's  Greek 
Testament  and  from  the  Revision  published  by  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society.  Following 
are  some  examples  of  texts  to  be  avoided.    A  favor- 

1  Comp.  Hagenbach,  s.  102. 


THE  TEXT  — SELECTION.  29 

ite  text  with  many  is  Acts  ix.  6,  "  Lord,  what  wilt 
thou  have  me  to  do?  "  This  is  unquestionably  spuri- 
ous, and  these  words  should  never  be  quoted  as 
Scripture;  yet  essentially  the  same  thought  is  ex- 
pressed in  Acts  xxii.  10,  "  What  shall  I  do,  Lord?" 
as  uttered  on  the  occasion  of  Paul's  conversion. 
The  famous  passage  in  i  John  v.  7,  "There  are  three 
that  bear  record  in  heaven,  the  Father,  the  Word,  and 
the  Holy  Ghost:  and  these  three  are  one,'*  is  also 
spurious  beyond  question.  The  passage  in  Acts  viii. 
37,  "And  Philip  said:  If  thou  believest  with  all  thy 
heart,  thou  mayest.  And  he  answered  and  said,  I 
believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,"  has  the 
evidence  so  overwhelmingly  against  its  genuineness 
that  it  ought  not  to  be  used  as  a  text.  Very  doubtful 
are  the  passages,  John  vii.  53 — viii.  ii,  concerning 
the  woman  taken  in  adultery,  and  Mark  xvi.  9-20.^ 

(7)  T/ie  sayings  of  uninspired  men^  recorded  in 
Scripture^  ought  not  to  be  used  as  textSt  unless  we 
know  from  other  teachings  of  Scripture  that  they  are 
true,  or  unless  we  propose  to  find  instruction  in  the 
fact  that  those  men  made  the  statements  given. 
Many  such  sayings  found  in  the  Bible  are  in  them- 
selves utterly  untrue,  inspiration  being  responsible 
only  for  the  fact  that  they  were  actually  spoken.  No 
one  would  think  of  treating  as  true  the  vaunting 
speech  of  Rabshakeh  (2  Kings,  chap,  xviii.).  The 
question  of  the  scribes  (Mark  ii.  7),  "  Who  can  for- 


1  There  is  no  more  occasion  for  uneasiness  at  the  fact  that  errors 
are  found  in  the  common  text  of  Scripture,  than  in  the  current  translw 
tioHs.  Men  who  are  well  aware  of  the  latter  fact,  and  not  disturbed 
by  it,  are  sometimes  shocked  at  the  former,  because  it  is  new  to 
them.  But  neither  in  text  nor  in  translation  do  our  common  Bibles 
present  any  such  errors  or  uncertainties  as  would  alter  or  modify  any 
doctrine  of  Scripture.  Still,  that  we  ought  not  to  employ  as  Scripture 
what  is  known  to  be  spurious,  is  a  proposition  which  would  seem  to 
need  no  proof. 


30  THE   TEXT  — SELECTION. 

give  sins  but  God  only?  "  we  know  to  be  a  just  ques- 
tion, and  as  such  we  might  make  it  a  text.  In  John 
vii.  46,  "  Never  man  spake  like  this  man,"  we  like- 
wise recognize  a  truth,  and  at  the  same  time  find 
significance  in  the  fact  that  the  officers  sent  to  appre- 
hend Jesus  were  thus  impressed.  The  well-known 
words  of  Gamaliel  (Acts  v.  38,  39)  are  very  instructive 
as  his  saying  under  the  circumstances,  but  the  prin- 
ciple laid  down  is  not  true  without  qualification.  In 
the  book  of  Job,  many  of  the  things  said  by  the  three 
friends  are  quite  erroneous,  and  a  few  of  Job's  own 
utterances  are  tinged  with  error,  as  is  shown  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  book.  These  ought  not  to  be 
treated  as  unqualified  truth,  while  as  a  part  of  the 
discussion  they  are  highly  interesting  and  instructive. 
So  with  some  particular  sayings  in  Ecclesiastes,  which 
are  not  the  present  affirmations  of  the  inspired  writer, 
but  only  a  record  of  things  which  he  had  said  in  some 
former  wrong  mood,  and  which  the  argument  of  the 
whole  book  serves  to  correct.  Yet  texts  from  both 
these  books  are  sometimes  preached  upon,  which, 
regarded  in  themselves,  present  erroneous  and  mor- 
bid views  of  life.  Let  all  sayings  which,  though  a 
part  of  the  inspired  record,  are  yet  only  the  utter- 
ances of  uninspired  men,  be  scrutinized  in  the  light 
of  their  connection  and  of  Scripture  in  general, 
before  they  are  used  as  texts.^ 

(8)  In  the  course  of  pastoral  labor y  several  consid- 
erations should  be  borne  in  mind  when  selecting  texts. 
One  is,  the  present  condition  of  the  congregation.   Mr. 

1  See  some  examples  in  Vinet,  Horn.  p.  109 ;  and  a  very  sensible 
discussion  of  the  whole  matter  in  Fisk's  Manual  of  Preaching,  pp.  68- 
70.  Professor  Fisk  mentions  several  ways  in  which  texts  of  this  kind 
may  be  used :  (i)  As  illustrations  of  God's  character ;  (2)  of  his  works ; 
(3)  of  the  imperfections  of  good  men ;  (4)  of  the  character  of  bad  men; 
and  (5)  of  the  power  of  conscience  in  bad  men. 


THE   TEXT  — SELECTION.  3 1 

Beecher^  insisted  very  strongly,  and  none  too  strongly, 
on  the  importance  of  this,  and  said :  **  You  will  very 
soon  come,  in  your  parish  life,  to  the  habit  of  thinking 
more  about  your  people,  and  what  you  shall  do  for 
them  than  about  your  sermons  and  what  you  shall 
talk  about.  That  is  a  good  sign."  A  second  consid- 
eration is,  the  character  of  the  texts  recently  dis- 
cussed. We  have  to  guard  against  monotony  in  the 
subjects  chosen,  as  well  as  in  the  mode  of  treating 
them,  and  to  seek  after  such  a  relation  between  the 
successive  sermons  as  will  cause  them  to  help  each 
other's  effect.  It  is  sometimes  well  to  look  forward 
and  mark  out  a  series  of  sermons  in  advance ;  but  it 
is  always  well  to  glance  backward,  at  each  new  step, 
and  keep  in  suitable  relation  to  what  has  preceded. 
For  this  purpose,  as  well  as  on  other  accounts,  a 
preacher  should  from  the  outset  keep  a  list  of  ser- 
mons preached,  including  date,  place,  and  text.  A 
third  and  very  important  consideration  is,  to  select 
that  in  which  we  can  at  the  time  take  interest,  as 
otherwise  we  shall  not  deeply  interest  others.  These 
three  considerations  will  sometimes  more  or  less  con- 
flict; we  must  endeavor  to  maintain  the  balance 
among  them  as  judiciously  as  possible.^ 

1  Yale  Lectures,  First  Series,  p.  40  ff. 

2  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Phillips  Brooks  (Yale  Lectures, 
p.  153  ff.)  discusses,  more  at  length  and  with  excellent  judgment,  these 
same  three  points.  A  very  like  discussion  is  also  to  be  found  in  Th. 
Harnack's  "  Geschichte  und  Theorie  der  Predigt,"  s.  174.  Both  liese 
works  were  published  after  the  first  edition  of  this  book. 


32 


THE   TEXT  —  INTERPRETATION. 


CHAPTER   II. 


THE  TEXT  —  INTERPRETATION. 


§  1.  Obligation    to    Interpret 

Carefully  and  Strictly, 

2.  Chief  Sources  of  Error  in 

the   Interpretation   of  a 

Text. 


§  3.  Examples  of  Texts  which 
ARE  often  Misapplied. 
4.  Brief  Suggestions  for  the 
Study  of  Texts. 


§  I.    OBLIGATION  TO   INTERPRET  CAREFULLY 
AND   STRICTLY. 

TO  interpret  and  apply  his  text  in  accordance 
with  its  real  meaning,  is  one  of  the  preacher's 
most  sacred  duties.  He  stands  before  the  people  for 
the  very  purpose  of  teaching  and  exhorting  them  out 
of  the  Word  of  God.  He  announces  a  particular 
passage  of  God's  Word  as  his  text  with  the  distinctly 
implied  understanding  that  from  this  his  sermon  will 
be  drawn  —  if  not  always  its  various  thoughts,  yet 
certainly  its  general  subject.  If  he  is  not  willing 
to  be  bound  by  this  understanding,  he  ought  to  reject 
the  practice  which  commits  him  to  it,  and  preach 
without  any  text.  But  using  a  text,  and  undertak- 
ing to  develop  and  apply  its  teachings,  he  is  sol- 
emnly bound  to  represent  the  text  as  meaning 
precisely  what  it  does  mean. 

This  would  seem  to  be  a  truism.  But  it  is  often 
and  grievously  violated.  Not  only  is  there  much 
contented  ignorance  as  to  interpretation,  and  much 
careless  neglect  on  the  part  of  persons  well  able  to 
interpret  correctly,  and  much  wild  spiritualizing  of 
plain  words,  but,  by  a  violent  method  of  "  accommo- 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  33 

dation,"  Scripture  sentences  or  phrases  are  employed 
as  signifying  what  it  is  well  known,  and  perhaps 
even  declared  at  the  time,  that  the  sacred  writer  did 
not  mean  to  say,  and  has  not  at  all  said.  "The  orig- 
inal meaning  of  these  words,  as  used  by  the  inspired 
writer,  is  —  so  and  so ;  but  I  propose  on  the  present 
occasion  to  employ  them  in  the  following  sense." 
That  is  to  say  —  honored  brother,  see  what  you  are 
doing  —  you  stand  up  to  teach  men  from  a  passage 
of  God's  blessed  Word,  and  coolly  declare  that  you 
propose  to  make  the  passage  mean  what  it  does  not 
mean.  "But  the  words  might  have  that  sense." 
They  might,  but  as  a  part  of  the  Bible,  as  a  text  of 
Scripture,  they  do  not.  If  we  take  the  passage  in 
a  sense  entirely  foreign  to  what  the  sacred  writer 
designed,  as  indicated  by  his  connection,  then,  as 
we  use  it,  the  phrase  is  no  longer  a  passage  of  Scrip- 
ture at  all.  It  is  merely  words  of  Scripture,  used 
without  authority  to  convey  a  different  meaning; 
just  as  truly  as  if  we  had  picked  out  words  from 
a  concordance,  and  framed  them  into  a  sentence. 
"  But  I  use  the  passage  merely  as  a  motto. "  Well, 
if  a  preacher  has  the  right  to  take  no  text  but  only 
a  motto  —  which  is  questionable  —  he  certainly  has 
not  the  right  to  make  a  Scriptural  motto  signify 
what  he  knows  it  does  not  signify.  "  But  the  lan- 
guage of  Scripture  is  so  rich,  its  pregnant  sayings 
often  mean  so  much,  that  I  think  perhaps  this  expres- 
sion may  convey,  among  other  things,  the  sense 
which  I  propose."  If  it  really  does,  there  is  no 
objection  whatever  to  using  it  so.  But  a  mere 
vague  "  perhaps  "  is  a  slender  and  tottering  excuse 
for  a  preacher,  who  is  looked  up  to  by  the  people  as 
authority  in  this  matter,  who  is  supposed  to  have 
studied  his  text  and  to  know  its  meaning,  and  whose 
statements  will,    for  that   reason,    be  accepted  by 

3 


34  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

many  without  question.  Such  a  man  is  verily  guilty 
before  God  if  he  does  not  honestly  strive  to  under- 
stand that  which  he  interprets,  and  give  forth  its 
real  meaning  and  no  other. 

Phillips  Brooks^  has  an  admirable  passage  on  this 
subject,  the  closing  sentences  of  which  are  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Never  draw  out  of  a  text  a  meaning  which 
you  know  is  not  there.  If  your  text  has  not  your 
truth  in  it,  find  some  other  text  which  has.  If  you 
can  find  no  text  for  it  in  the  Bible,  then  preach  on 
something  else. "  And  to  the  same  purport  Phelps  ^ 
says:  **That  is  a  distorted  ministry  which  deals  in 
any  large  proportion  with  subjects  which  are  not 
logically  presented  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  not  a 
biblical  ministry." 

In  one  direction,  however,  the  idea  of  strict  inter- 
pretation-may be  carried  too  far.  It  is  certainly 
best,  as  a  general  rule,  to  confine  the  sermon  to  the 
precise  subject  and  aspect  of  a  subject,  which  the 
text  in  its  connection  sets  forth. ^  But  we  are  not 
necessarily  restricted  to  this.  Some  principle  may 
be  presented  by  the  text  in  one  application,  and  we 
may  with  perfect  propriety  make  other  applications 
of  it.  If  this  is  all  that  is  meant  by  accommoda- 
tion, it  is  not  a  perversion  of  the  Scripture,  for  the 
text  really  teaches  the  principle,  and  the  new  appli- 
cations are  avowedly  made  by  ourselves,  guided  by 
the  general  teachings  of  Scripture.  The  apostle 
Paul  often  states  a  broad  principle  as  bearing  on 
some  particular  question  of  truth  or  duty.  For 
example.  Gal.  vi.  7,  "Whatsoever  a  man  soweth, 
that  shall  he  also  reap,"  is  said  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  duty  of  contributing  to  the  support  of 

1  Yale  Lectures,  pp.  162,  163. 

2  Theory  of  Preaching,  p.  1 24. 

*  Comp.  on  Subject-sermons,  Part  II.  chap.  iii. 


THE   TEXT— INTERPRETATION.  3$ 

religious  teachers,  but  it  is  given  as  a  general  truth, 
and  admits  of  many  applications  which  it  is  lawful 
for  us  to  make.  Again,  sometimes  a  very  general 
admonition  may  properly  be  applied  by  the  preacher 
to  some  particular  case,  provided  he  is  sure  it  really 
covers  the  case.  For  example,  it  is  perfectly  legit- 
imate to  apply  to  a  large  variety  of  special  cases  the 
noble  counsel  of  Paul  in  i  Thess.  v.  21,  22,  "Prove 
all  things;  hold  fast  that  which  is  good;  abstain 
from  every  form  of  evil."  (It  is  important  to  notice 
here  that  the  Revised  Version  gives  the  true  mean- 
ing of  this  frequently  misunderstood  text.)  Such 
texts  as  these  are  a  great  comfort  to  the  conscien- 
tious preacher  who  is  really  anxious  to  use  the  Word 
of  God  accurately  and  sincerely.  With  this  text  a 
man  can  preach  against  any  form  of  evil,  provided 
he  can  prove  that  it  is  in  truth  an  evil.  Of  course 
if  there  is  some  text  which  specifically  condemns 
the  evil  it  is  better  to  take  that,  but  sometimes 
it  may  not  be  easy  to  find  just  the  text  that  suits. 
In  other  cases  we  may  start  from  the  precise  point 
given  by  the  text  and  advance  to  related  truths. 
We  thus  extend  the  application  of  the  text,  but  in  a 
direction  not  foreign  but  akin  to  the  sacred  writer's 
specific  design.  In  Amos  iv.  12,  "Prepare  to  meet 
thy  God,"  the  prophet  gives  warning  of  impending 
temporal  judgments  upon  the  nation,  and  calls  upon 
Israel  to  prepare  to  meet  God  in  these.  Yet  it  is 
lawful  for  us,  after  pointing  out  this,  to  show  that 
if  we  continue  in  sin  we  must  all  meet  God,  not 
only  in  temporal  judgments  but  in  the  vengeance  of 
the  great  day,  and  so  we  may  call  on  our  hearers 
to  prepare  for  eternity.  This  is  not  wrenching  the 
text  from  its  connection  and  misusing  it;  we  only 
carry  the  inspired  writer's  idea  further  in  the  direc- 
tion he  had  in  mind,  and  we  do  this  on  our  own 


36  THE   TEXT— INTERPRETATION. 

responsibility  with  no  assertion  or  implication  that 
he  meant  to  consider  all  the  topics  which  our  dis- 
course includes.  It  thus  appears  that  one  may 
preach  from  a  text  on  any  matter  which  it  presents 
to  the  mind,  whether  directly  or  indirectly,  by  state- 
ment, presupposition,  or  inference,  provided  that  in 
some  way  it  really  does  mean  what  is  claimed ;  and 
where  this  meaning  is  only  indirectly  presented  it 
will  be  better,  in  some  simple  way,  to  point  out 
the  fact,  so  as  not  to  encourage  in  the  people  loose 
notions  of  interpretation.  Very  different  from  this 
was  the  course  of  a  preacher  who  once  gave  a  mis- 
sionary sermon  from  the  words  of  the  young  ruler, 
"  What  lack  I  yet  1  "  inquiring  what  we  lack  for 
greater  success  in  the  missionary  enterprise.  This 
is  an  extreme  case;  but  thousands  of  sermons  are 
preached  in  which  the  real  meaning  of  the  text  is 
just  as  completely,  though  not  often  so  manifestly, 
violated. 

Phelps^  has  a  good  discussion  of  accommodation. 
He  distinguishes  three  kinds:  (i)  That  based  on 
mere  resemblance  of  sound,  as  where  a  man  preached 
on  the  duties  of  judges  from  the  words,  "Judge  not, 
that  ye  be  not  judged."  This  he  justly  condemns 
as  puerile,  and  characterizes  as  "play  upon  a  jews- 
harp."  (2)  That  founded  on  metaphorical  resem- 
blance. This  he  also  wisely  rejects.  It  is  merely 
spiritualizing,  which  will  be  considered  further  on. 
(3)  That  which  rests  "  on  the  ground  of  resemblance 
in  principle  between  the  text  and  the  theme."  This 
he  considers  to  be,  with  cautious  use,  admissible. 
It  pretty  nearly  corresponds  to  what  has  been  ex- 
plained and  justified  in  the  preceding  paragraph. ^ 

1  Theory  of  Preaching,  p.  114  ff. 

2  Comp.  also  Hoppin,  Horn.  pp.  314-318 ;  and  Fisk,  Manual  of 
Preaching,  p.  74  ff. 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  37 

The  remark  may  be  here  added,  that  where  a  text 
in  its  connection  admits  of  more  than  one  meaning, 
we  shall  do  well  either  to  avoid  it  as  too  ambiguous 
for  our  purpose,  or  to  indicate  that  we  take  the  more 
probable  sense  and  confine  attention  to  its  lessons 
as  thus  understood.  The  plan  of  taking  up  in  suc- 
cession several  different  senses  and  making  a  prac- 
tical application  of  each  cannot  be  approved.  We 
must  bring  to  bear  upon  men's  minds  as  a  part  of 
God's  Word,  only  what  the  text  really  means,  as 
best  we  can  ascertain  it. 

Is  it  ever  allowable  to  use  a  text  simply  as  a 
motto  ?  This  is  questionable.  Hoppin  ^  squarely 
opposes  the  practice.  Phelps  ^  discusses  the  matter 
very  wisely,  and  thinks  that  with  some  distinctions 
and  cautions  motto-texts  may  sometimes  be  used. 
But  what  is  meant  by  a  motto-text.^  It  is  like  the 
quotations  on  the  title-page,  or  at  the  chapter-head- 
ings of  books;  the  words  only  remotely  suggest  the 
treatment.  As  Hoppin  says,  in  this  way  the  "text" 
often  becomes  only  a  "  pretext. "  But  still  an  occa- 
sional use  of  a  text  in  this  way  is  conceivably  proper. 
Let  us  put  the  case  thus:  Occasion  arises  for  the 
discussion  of  some  particular  subject  for  which  the 
preacher  can  find  no  exactly  suitable  text.  He  must 
not  pervert  Scripture  to  make  it  suit  his  theme. 
Then  he  must  either  make  an  address  without  taking 
a  text,  or  use  the  text  as  a  motto  for  his  discourse. 
Which  should  he  do.?  Sometimes  one  and  some- 
times the  other.  In  the  first  case  he  should  explain 
that  he  prefers  to  make  an  address  rather  than  to 
preach  from  a  text.  In  the  other  case  he  ought  to 
interpret  his  text  carefully,  giving  its  real  meaning 
and  application.     He  should  then   show  how  the 

*  Horn.  p.  318. 

*  Theory  of  Preaching,  p.  126  ff. 


38  THE   TEXT— INTERPRETATION. 

text,  as  properly  interpreted  and  applied,  comes  to 
suggest  at  least  the  subject,  or  to  have  a  fitting  con- 
nection with  it.  Thus  in  preaching  a  historical  ser- 
mon before  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  on  one 
occasion,  the  preacher  chose  as  his  text  the  promise 
to  Naphtali  in  Deut.  xxxiii.  23,  "O  Naphtali,  satis- 
fied with  favor,  and  full  with  the  blessing  of  the 
Lord;  possess  thou  the  west  and  the  south."  As  a 
motto  the  beautiful  appropriateness  of  this  is  appar- 
ent ;  but  the  preacher  did  not  pretend  that  the  tribe 
of  Naphtali  was  in  any  sense  a  "type  "  of  Southern 
Baptists,  or  that  Moses  might  have  had  these  in  his 
prophetic  view  when  he  pronounced  this  blessing. 

Now  supposing  in  the  preacher  an  earnest  desire 
to  interpret  his  text  correctly,  he  will  not  always 
find  it  an  easy  task.  Apart  from  the  loose  notions, 
bad  examples,  and  previous  wrong  practice,  which 
often  becloud  the  mind  with  reference  to  interpreta- 
tion, it  has  some  intrinsic  and  serious  difficulties 
which  can  be  overcome  only  by  thoughtful  effort. 
While,  therefore,  the  whole  great  subject  of  Biblical 
Hermeneutics  or  Interpretation  does  not  belong  to 
a  treatise  on  Homiletics,  it  seems  proper  and  neces- 
sary to  give  some  account  of  the  errors  to  be  avoided 
by  a  preacher  in  interpreting  his  text. 

§  2.    CHIEF  SOURCES   OF  ERROR  IN  THE  INTER- 
PRETATION OF  A  TEXT. 

(i)  Erroneous  interpretations  often  arise  from  mis- 
understanding the  phraseology  of  the  text  itself.  Lan- 
guage can  never  do  more  than  approximate  to  perfect 
precision  of  expression,  with  freedom  from  the  pos- 
sibility of  being  misunderstood;  and  an  easy,  collo- 
quial style  is  especially  apt  to  involve  a  number 
of  ellipses,  broken  constructions,   words  of  various 


THE   TEXT  —  INTERPRETATION,  39 

and  not  well-defined  meaning,  and  other  causes  of 
ambiguity.  If,  then,  a  revelation  was  to  be  given 
in  human  language,  and  to  be  expressed  for  the  most 
part  in  that  familiar  style  which  would  make  it 
"come  home  to  men's  business  and  bosoms,"  would 
make  it  a  book  for  men  and  women,  and  boys  and 
girls,  for  cultivated  and  uncultivated  people,  it  must 
be  an  inevitable  condition  of  such  a  revelation  that 
questions  might  often  arise  as  to  the  exact  meaning 
of  its  details.  The  general  drift  of  a  narrative, 
argument,  or  exhortation  may  be  obvious  enough, 
and  its  practical  impression  upon  a  docile  and  sus- 
ceptible mind  may  be  very  distinct,  and  yet  those 
who  come  to  criticise  the  details,  especially  if  they 
come  with  prepossessions  and  prejudices,  may  find 
numerous  expressions  capable  of  being  variously 
interpreted,  and  perhaps  some  whose  exact  sense  is 
really  doubtful.  Far  better  this,  it  is  evident,  than 
the  idea  of  a  revelation  presented  in  a  uniformly 
didactic  and  rigorously  scientific  style,  which  must 
at  last  fail  of  absolute  precision,  while  it  would  be 
thoroughly  devoid  of  interest  for  the  ordinary 
human  mind.  Let  us,  therefore,  cheerfully  accept 
the  necessity  of  exercising  great  care  when  we  inter- 
pret the  language  of  Scripture,  as  we  are  compelled 
to  do  with  all  other  language. 

Moreover,  there  are  in  our  task  some  peculiar  con- 
ditions. Many  of  us  have  to  interpret  a  translation. 
Now  the  best  translations  are  necessarily  imperfect. 
It  is  rarely,  if  ever,  the  case  that  two  words  in 
different  languages  will  contain  precisely  the  same 
bulk  of  meaning  in  the  same  form,  and  carry  with 
them  the  same  atmosphere  of  association  and  sug- 
gestion. Idiomatic  differences  of  construction,  too, 
will  sometimes  introduce  ambiguity  where  the  orig- 
inal was  precise,  or  make  too  definite  what  in  the 


4d  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

original  was  only  general.  Especially  frequent  are 
the  cases  in  which  our  language  fails  to  indicate 
the  emphasis,  which  in  the  Hebrew  or  the  Greek 
may  be  distinctly  marked.  And  then  our  common 
English  Version,  though  its  general  style  is  so 
admirable,  and  though  no  other  popular  translation 
has  ever  equalled  it  in  correctness,  is  disfigured  by 
not  a  few  errors,  and  contains  various  words  and 
phrases  which  have  become  obsolete,  or  have  changed 
their  meaning. ^  Yet  with  all  this,  there  is  nothing 
to  discourage  or  to  excuse  the  preacher  from  earnest 
efforts  to  ascertain  the  true  meaning  of  his  text. 
By  working  himself,  through  extensive,  constant 
and  devout  reading  of  the  Bible,  into  thorough  sym- 
pathy with  its  characteristic  modes  of  thought  and 
forms  of  expression,  by  throwing  himself  upon  the 
current  of  the  general  connection  of  his  text,  so  as 
to  be  borne  over  any  particular  difficulties,  by  com- 
paring it  with  various  other  passages  in  which  the 
same  or  a  kindred  subject  is  treated,  and  by  con- 
sulting the  works  of  learned  and  really  judicious 
expositors,  the  intelligent  preacher  who  uses  only 
our  English  Version  will  have  great  success  in  the 
interpretation  of  Scripture.  Witness  the  sermons 
and  the  writings  of  hosts  of  Baptist  ministers,  and 
also  of  Methodists  and  others.  Witness  Andrew 
Fuller,  who  had  practically  no  knowledge  of  the 
original  languages,  and  yet  his  interpretations  of 
Scripture  are  clear  and  safe  in  a  degree  very  rarely 
surpassed.  2 

1  The  Revised  (Canterbury)  Version  has  made  great  improve- 
ments, but  still  retains  some  of  the  archaic  and  sometimes  incorrect 
phraseology  of  the  King  James  Version.  • 

^  Dr.  Chalmers,  in  urging  his  favorite  counsel  that  students  and 
ministers  who  knovir  the  original  ought  also  to  make  regular  and 
extended  study  of  the  English  Version,  somewhere  refers  to  Andrew 
Fuller  as  a  striking  example  of  the  extent  to  which  %  man  may  carry 


THE   TEXT— INTERPRETATION.  4I 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  one  uses  the  original  lan- 
guages in  his  interpretation,  there  is  the  danger  of 
being  misled  by  superficial  knowledge  or  hasty  exam- 
ination. To  ascertain  the  exact  meaning  of  words 
and  phrases  in  those  languages,  a  thorough  acquaint- 
ance with  them  is  obviously  necessary.  It  is  often 
said  that  one  needs  a  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  and 
Greek  in  order  that  he  may  understand  the  difficult 
passages;  it  would  be  more  nearly  correct,  though 
paradoxical,  to  say  that  such  knowledge  will  help 
him  to  understand  the  easy  passages,  the  great  mass 
of  Scripture.  As  to  the  difficult  places,  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  original  language  will  enable  us  to 
judge,  with  greater  confidence  and  correctness, 
among  the  various  interpretations,  though  it  be  not 
likely  that  we  shall  strike  out  anything  new,  with- 
out a  profounder  knowledge  than  is  often  attained. 
Such  an  acquaintance  will  also  sometimes  save  us 
from  the  disheartening  notion  that  scholarship  would 
make  it  all  plain,  in  cases  which  have  at  last  to  be 
decided  by  reference  to  the  connection  and  the  gen- 
eral teachings  of  Scripture.  But  as  to  the  great  bulk 
of  Scripture,  even  the  slightest  knowledge  of  the 
originals  is  of  service,  in  helping  us  to  enter  into 
intellectual  sympathy  with  the  sacred  writers. 

For  the  language  of  the  Bible  is  pervaded  by  a 
Hebraistic  spirit,  marked  by  Oriental  modes  of  con- 
ception, which  are  in  many  respects  quite  different 
from  those  of  our  own  people.  This  is  most  clearly 
seen  in  the  Old  Testament,  though  the  New  Testa- 
ment Greek  shows  more  or  less  of  the  same  tinge. 
To  read  but  a  few  pages  of  Hebrew,  even  though 
one  should  never  become  capable  of  exact  exegesis, 

his  knowledge  of  Scripture  by  the  use  of  the  English  Version  alone. 
Some  brief  and  good  suggestions  on  exposition  are  given  by  Fuller, 
Works  (ed.  Am.  Bapt.  Pub.  Soc),  Vol.  I.,  p.  712. 


42  THE   TEXT— INTERPRETATION. 

cannot  fail  to  aid  a  susceptible  mind  in  the  sym- 
pathetic comprehension  of  Scripture  ways  of  think- 
ing and  peculiarities  of  expression ;  and  of  course  a 
thorough  study  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  will  carry 
this  benefit  still  farther.  The  effect  is  analogous  to 
that  of  travelling  in  Palestine.  Still,  if  a  man  can- 
not study  these  languages,  he  must  earnestly  strive 
to  catch  the  tone  of  Scripture,  and  even  the  peculiar 
tone  of  its  several  writers.  All  persons  among  us 
have  unconsciously  attained  something  of  this,  from 
general  reading  of  the  Bible,  and  from  the  extent 
to  which  Scriptural  modes  of  thought  and  expression 
pervade  our  preaching  and  our  religious  literature. 
But  strenuous  and  sustained  effort  in  this  direction 
is  demanded  of  those  who  would  be  good  interpreters 
of  Scripture. 

"In  the  language  of  the  Bible  there  is  a  certain 
number  of  words  which  we  may  call  capital,  the 
meaning  of  which,  exactly  seized,  becomes  the  key 
of  the  Bible.  If  we  confine  ourselves  purely  and 
simply  to  the  usual  signification  of  the  terms  which 
the  translator  uses  in  rendering  such  words  into  our 
language,  we  are  in  great  danger  of  committing  seri- 
ous errors.  Thus,  as  to  the  words  fleshy  soul,  heart, 
feaVy  faithy  understanding,  foolish,  light,  darkness, 
just,  righteousness,  salvation,  grace,  good  man,  wicked. 
The  translator  has  translated  for  you  the  words; 
you  must  translate  the  ideas  for  yourselves. "  ^  The 
technical  sense  in  Scripture  of  such  leading  terms 
we  partly  learn  from  general  observation  in  reading, 
but  may  more  precisely  ascertain  through  a  com- 
parison, by  help  of  the  concordance,  of  many  passages 
in  which  they  are  employed. 

Further,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  language  of 
Scripture  is,  as  a  general  thing,   not  philosophical 

1  Vinet,  Horn.  p.  iii. 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  43 

but  popular,  not  scientific  but  poetic,  not  so  much 
an  analytical  language,  fond  of  sharp  discrimina- 
tioas  and  exact  statements,  as  a  synthetical  language, 
abounding  in  concrete  terms,  the  representatives 
not  of  abstractions,  but  of  facts  of  actual  existence 
and  experience,  which  in  their  meaning  gradually 
shade  into  each  other  without  any  definite  line  of 
distinction.  This  character  leads  to  some  pecu- 
liar forms  of  expression,  which  abound  in  the  Bible, 
and  are  important  for  the  interpretation  of  many 
texts. 

"  A  poetic  language,  a  language  I  mean  of  a  poetic 
people,  delights  alternately  to  diminish  and  aug- 
ment, that  the  imagination  of  the  hearer  or  reader 
may  be  exercised  in  adding  or  retrenching."  For 
example,  "Whosoever  is  born  of  God,  doth  not  com- 
mit sin"  (i  John  iii.  9);  "That  which  is  highly 
esteemed  among  men  is  abomination  in  the  sight 
of  God"  (Luke  xvi.  15);  "If  any  man  come  to  me 
and  hate  not  his  father  and  mother  ...  he  cannot 
be  my  disciple  "  (Luke  xiv.  26).  And,  as  an  example 
of  a  diminished  expression,  "  The  unfruitful  works  of 
darkness  "  (Eph.  v.  1 1), 

"It  delights  by  turns  to  make  absolute  that  which 
is  relative,  and  relative  that  which  is  absolute." 
Examples  of  the  former:  "When  thou  makest  a 
dinner  or  a  supper,  call  not  thy  friends,  nor  thy 
brethren,  neither  thy  kinsmen,  nor  thy  rich  neigh- 
bors; .  .  .  but  call  the  poor,  the  maimed,"  etc. 
(Luke  xiv.  12).  This  is  stated  as  an  absolute  pro- 
hibition of  inviting  friends,  kindred,  rich  neighbors, 
and  a  command  to  invite  exclusively  the  other  class. 
We  know  very  well  that  our  Lord  did  not  mean  to 
be  thus  understood,  nor  does  any  one  ever  thus 
interpret.  Naturally,  and  as  a  matter  of  course, 
men  will  invite  kindred,   the  rich,  and  others,  and 


44  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

for  this,  which  is  done  because  of  mere  natural  affec- 
tion or  social  reciprocity,  they  will  get  no  religious 
reward.  But  it  is  so  much  more  important,  on  relig- 
ious grounds  and  in  hope  of  a  divine  reward,  to 
invite  the  poor  and  suffering,  that  our  Lord  speaks 
as  if,  compared  with  this,  the  former  must  not  be 
done  at  all.  In  Prov.  viii.  lo,  we  have  first  the 
absolute  form  of  statement,  and  then  in  the  parallel 
clause  the  relative  form :  "  Receive  my  instruction, 
and  not  silver;  and  knowledge  rather  than  choice 
gold. "  Here  the  former  clause  was  not  meant  to  be 
understood  as  really  making  an  absolute  prohibition 
of  receiving  silver;  it  is  simply  a  highly  emphatic 
way  of  urging  the  same  thought  that  is  presented  in 
the  latter  clause.  In  Gen.  xlv.  8,  Joseph  says,  "  So 
now  it  was  not  you  that  sent  me  hither,  but  God. " 
In  Jer.  vii.  22,  23,  God  declares,  "  I  spake  not  unto 
your  fathers,  nor  commanded  them,  in  the  day  that 
I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  concerning 
burnt  offerings  or  sacrifices;  but  this  thing  com- 
manded I  them,  saying,  Obey  my  voice,  and  I  will 
be  your  God,  and  ye  shall  be  my  people. "  It  was 
well  known  that  God  had  spoken  to  their  fathers 
very  extensively  concerning  sacrifices ;  but  the  com- 
mand to  obedience  is  held  to  be  so  much  more 
important,  that  the  other  is  pronounced  nothing  in 
the  comparison.  So  with  Matt.  ix.  13  (Hos.  vi.  6), 
"I  desire  mercy,  and  not  sacrifice."  All  this  seems 
obvious.  But  does  not  the  same  principle  apply  to 
I  Pet.  iii.  3,  "Whose  adorning  let  it  not  be  that 
outward  adorning  of  plaiting  the  hair,  and  of  wear- 
ing of  gold,  or  of  putting  on  of  apparel ;  but  let  it 
be  the  hidden  man  of  the  heart  .  .  .  the  ornament 
of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit,"  etc. }  (Comp.  i  Tim. 
ii.  9).  The  apostle  does  not  mean  to  be  understood 
as   really  prohibiting  all   outward   adornment,   any 


THE  TEXT— INTERPRETATION.  45 

more  than  the  other  passages  prohibit  inviting  kin- 
dred, receiving  silver,  or  offering  sacrifices;  he 
means  to  say  emphatically  that  the  most  beautiful 
outward  adorning,  such  as  women  so  highly  prize, 
is  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  that  imperishable 
adorning  of  the  spirit,  which  in  the  sight  of  God  is 
of  great  price.  It  is  an  absolute  statement,  designed 
to  be  understood  relatively,  but  also  intended  by  its 
absolute  form  to  be  very  emphatic  and  impressive. 
If  this  view  of  the  passage  be  correct,  then  thou- 
sands of  well-meaning  Christians,  and  more  than 
one  organized  body,  have  vainly  striven  to  eradicate 
the  natural  love  of  ornament,  merely  because  they 
did  not  consider  that  the  energetic  language  of 
Scripture  frequently  puts  absolute  for  relative;  and 
at  the  same  time  thousands  of  others,  through  the 
same  mistake,  have  failed  to  appreciate  the  urgent 
and  vehement  exhortation  to  care  less  for  outward, 
and  more  for  inward  adornment.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  following  is  an  example  of  relative  for  absolute : 
"This  man  went  down  to  his  house  justified  rather 
than  the  other"  (Luke  xviii.  14).  We  understand, 
as  it  was  intended  we  should,  that  the  publican  was 
justified,  while  the  Pharisee,  contrary  to  all  popular 
expectation,  really  was  not  justified. 

"It  generalizes  that  which  is  particular  and  par- 
ticularizes that  which  is  general;  takes  duty  some- 
times at  its  summit,  sometimes  at  its  base.  For 
example,  '  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against 
thy  neighbor  '  (Exod.  xx.  16).  It  sometimes  does 
not  distinguish  nicely  the  notions  which  are  closely 
related  to  each  other,  such  as  wicked  2Lndi  foolish.  It 
delights  in  synonyms  and  parallelisms,  in  advancing 
in  couples  or  pairs  of  ideas.  For  example,  *  Thy 
word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet,  and  a  light  unto  my 
path '  (Psa.  cxix.  105).     It  classifies  without  scien- 


46  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

tific  purpose ;  as,  *  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  and 
renew  a  right  spirit  within  me'  (Psa.  li.  12).  The 
Old  and  the  New  Testaments  abound  in  similar 
examples.  We  frequently  find  in  the  prophets  and 
apostles  series  of  substantives  or  adjectives,  which 
have  been  taken  very  improperly  as  the  base  of 
divisions  in  discourses."  Thus  in  i  Pet.  iv.  18,  "If 
the  righteous  scarcely  be  saved,  where  shall  the  un- 
godly and  the  sinner  appear.?"  it  is  quite  common 
to  take  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  as  representing 
two  distinct  classes,  which  is  not  justified  by  the 
mere  use  of  both  terms,  and  is,  in  fact,  forbidden 
by  the  construction  of  the  Greek.  So  as  to  the 
several  terms  in  2  Pet.  i.  5-7,  distinctions  are  some- 
times very  unwisely  pressed. 

"Such  is  the  language  of  the  Bible;  and,  further, 
each  of  the  epochs  which  are  represented  in  it,  each 
of  the  authors  who  contributed  to  it,  has  a  peculiar 
style."! 

(2)  Erroneous  interpretations  arise  from  disregard- 
ing  the  connection  of  the  text.  In  some  cases,  a  sen- 
tence taken  apart  from  its  connection  would  give  a 
positively  wrong  sense.  For  example,  "Neverthe- 
less, being  crafty,  I  caught  you  with  guile  "  (2  Cor. 
xii.  16).  In  others,  it  would  be  hopelessly  ambig- 
uous, or  utterly  vague.  In  nearly  all  cases,  a  thor- 
ough understanding  will  require  that  we  examine  the 
connection.  Even  in  those  portions  of  Proverbs, 
where  the  several  sentences  appear  wholly  discon- 
nected, one  may  sometimes  derive  help  from  observ- 
ing what  seems  to  be  the  general  class  of  topics 
which  the  writer  or  collector  has  here  in  mind.  In 
the  Psalms,   even  Psalm   cxix.,   there   is   always   a 

1  These  extracts,  with  some  of  the  passages  of  Scripture  quoted 
in  illustration,  are  from  Vinet,  Hom.  pp.  113,  114.  The  sentences 
extracted  are  sometimes  slightly  altered. 


THE  TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  47 

general  drift  by  which  we  may  be  guided.  In  the 
narratives,  poetical  treatises,  discourses,  epistolary 
arguments,  etc.,  which  make  up  almost  the  entire 
Bible,  the  connection  is  obviously  important.  It 
might  in  fact  seem  needless  to  insist  on  this.  No 
man  of  sense,  in  dealing  with  any  other  book,  would 
think  of  interpreting  a  single  sentence  here  or  there, 
in  entire  disregard  of  its  connection.  If  an  agri- 
culturist or  engineer,  a  physician  or  lawyer,  should 
thus  interpret  detached  sentences  in  the  works  which 
he  consults  for  instruction  and  practical  guidance, 
he  would  be  voted  a  simpleton. 

Why,  then,  do  men  of  sense  so  often  neglect,  or 
even  knowingly  violate,  the  connection  of  a  Scripture 
text.?  Partly  from  the  long-continued  and  wide- 
spread practice  of  allegorizing  —  to  be  discussed 
below  —  which  is  often  most  easily  managed  by  cut- 
ting loose  from  the  context,  and  which  has  encour- 
aged men  to  think  that  the  language  of  Scripture  is 
so  very  different  from  all  other  language,  as  to  be 
independent  of  the  principles  which  ordinarily  gov- 
ern interpretation.  It  is  a  mournful  fact  that  Univer- 
salists,  Romanists,  Mormons,  can  find  an  apparent 
support  for  their  heresies  in  Scripture,  without 
interpreting  more  loosely,  without  doing  greater  vio- 
lence to  the  meaning  and  connection  of  the  sacred 
text  than  is  sometimes  done  by  orthodox,  devout  and 
even  intelligent  men.  A  second  cause  is  the  exclu- 
sive use  of  short  texts.  Men  of  ordinary  powers 
cannot  always  find  short  passages  which,  interpreted 
in  the  light  of  the  connection,  will  furnish  them 
material  enough  for  a  sermon ;  and  they  are  tempted 
to  make  some  additional  application  of  the  words 
which  the  connection  does  not  admit,  or  even  to 
break  a  sentence  away  from  its  connection,  and  give 
it  an  entirely  new  application,  which  would  make  it 


48  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

a  striking  text.^  Under  such  pressure,  and  encour* 
aged  by  the  example  of  good  and  honored  brethren, 
they  interpret  as  suits  them;  and  the  habit  thus 
formed  is  perhaps  confirmed  by  indolence,  seeing 
that  it  is  often  troublesome  to  study  the  context. 

And  there  is  yet  another  cause.  Some  six  cen- 
turies ago  there  began  the  present  division  of  the 
Bible  into  chapters,  and  some  three  centuries  ago 
the  subdivision  into  verses.  Both  were  made  for 
convenience  in  reference,  just  as  somewhat  similar 
divisions  and  subdivisions  have  from  time  to  time 
been  made  in  the  text  of  many  Greek  and  Latin 
authors.  In  the  classics,  however,  only  the  larger 
divisions,  the  chapters,  have  been  printed  as  sepa- 
rate, the  subdivisions  being  put  together  according 
to  the  sense,  and  merely  noted  on  the  margin  or 
within  the  text.  Unfortunately,  a  different  course 
has  been  pursued  in  printing  the  Bible;  beginning 
with  the  Genevan  Version,  it  has  become  common  to 
print  each  verse  as  a  separate  paragraph.  This 
mode  of  printing  was  probably  introduced  partly 
because  of  the  peculiar  structure  of  the  Psalms,  in 
which  the  successive  sentences  are  frequently  dis- 
tinct; it  also  saved  trouble  in  finding  verses,  and 
the  practice  at  one  time  existed  of  printing  "refer- 
ences "  not  as  we  do  in  the  margin,  but  at  the  end 
of  each  verse.  Whatever  causes  established  the 
custom,  it  has  long  been  a  custom,  and  some  per- 
sons even  defend  it  because  it  makes  the  Bible  look 
different  from  other  books.  Now  the  division  into 
verses,  as  well  as  that  into  chapters,  was  very  care- 
lessly made,  and  often  sadly  disregards  the  connec- 
tion and  obscures  the  sense.  And  even  if  the  verses 
were  better  divided,  the  separate  printing  of  brief 
sentences  and  parts  of  sentences  must  of  necessity 

*  See  on  Expository  Preaching,  Part  II.  chap.  iii. 


THE   TEXT —  INTERPRETATION.  49 

make  it  more  difficult  to  keep  up  the  general  con- 
nection, particularly  as  we  are  accustomed,  in  all 
other  books,  to  a  division  into  paragraphs,  which 
mark  the  connection  clearly.  The  result  has  been 
to  lead  both  preachers  and  hearers  to  think  of  every 
chapter  and  every  verse  as  a  sort  of  separate  whole. 
It  is  curious  to  observe  how  rarely  we  hear  read  in 
public  the  latter  part  of  one  chapter  and  the  earlier 
part  of  the  next,  though  the  slightest  care  for  the 
real  connection  of  narrative  or  argument  would  often 
require  this;  and  how  awkward  it  would  seem  to 
take  the  last  words  of  one  verse  and  the  first  words 
of  another  as  a  text.  To  dispel  this  illusion,  which 
makes  every  verse  a  paragraph,  and  every  chapter 
almost  a  distinct  book,  is  a  matter  of  serious  import- 
ance for  all  persons,  ministers  or  others,  who  wish 
really  to  understand  the  Bible.  Much  advantage 
may  be  derived  from  habitually  reading  a  Paragraph 
Bible.  1  No  other  mode  of  printing  is  now  tolerated 
in  the  Greek,  and  in  the  Hebrew  the  paragraphs 
marked  by  the  early  Jewish  scholars  have  always 
been  retained.  It  is  one  of  the  many  excellences 
of  the  Revised  (Canterbury)  Version  that  it  is  printed 
in  paragraph  form. 

It  would  seem  plain  from  what  has  been  said,  that 
the  preacher  who  wishes  to  deal  fairly  with  his  own 
mind  and  with  God's  Word,  must  determine  that  he 
will  never  interpret  a  text  without  careful  regard  to 
its  connection. 2    The  considerations  presented  may 

1  Bagster  has  published  Paragraph  Bibles,  in  various  styles.  The 
Annotated  Paragraph  Bible,  new  edition  published  by  the  American 
Baptist  Publication  Society,  is  well  arranged,  and  has  very  valuable 
notes.  This  Society  has  also  a  Bible  and  a  New  Testament,  printed 
in  paragraphs,  and  sufficiently  cheap.  The  Revised  New  Testament 
and  other  revisions  of  the  same  Society,  have  the  advantage  of  being 
printed  in  the  same  way. 

2  See  below,  §  4,  Rule  (2). 

4 


50  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

explain  how  it  is  that  many  devout  and  sometimes 
able  brethren  have  been  led  to  do  otherwise,  and 
censure  of  their  course  is  not  proposed ;  but  when  a 
man's  attention  has  been  distinctly  called  to  the 
matter,  he  is  solemnly  bound  to  give  heed  to  it  in 
practice.  How  shall  one  reconcile  it  with  the 
responsibility  of  his  position,  to  stand  before  men 
in  God's  name,  and  say  that  a  passage  of  the  blessed 
Bible  means  anything  else  than  what  he  is  satisfied, 
from  the  phraseology  and  the  connection,  it  really 
does  mean? 

(3)  A  third  source  of  error  in  the  interpretation 
of  texts  is  improper  spiritualizing. 

We  have  no  other  means  of  representing  spiritual 
things  than  by  metaphors  derived  from  things  tem- 
poral ;  and  our  very  conceptions  of  the  unseen  world 
depend  upon  images  furnished  by  the  world  in  which 
we  now  live.  Swedenborg  taught,  in  the  "  doctrine 
of  correspondences "  upon  which  he  asserts  the 
Scriptures  to  have  been  written,  that  every  object 
and  relation  in  the  material  sphere  has  something 
corresponding  to  it  in  the  spiritual  sphere.  As  a 
universal  fact,  we  may  well  ask  for  some  better  proof 
of  this  than  the  Swedish  Baron's  visions;  but  it  is 
going  to  the  opposite  extreme  if  we  imagine  that 
the  relation  between  things  temporal  and  spiritual 
is  simply  an  affair  of  metaphors.  The  Scriptures 
appear  to  teach  that  there  really  is  much  of  intimate 
connection  and  much  of  close  correspondence  between 
these  two  great  spheres  of  existence.  All  the  false 
religions  present  perversions  and  distortions  of  this 
conception.  And  the  allegorical,  in  the  broad  sense 
of  that  term,  is  very  widely  and  variously  employed 
in  the  Scriptures  of  truth.  The  numerous  sacrifices 
and  purifications  enjoined  in  the  law,  represented  the 
work  of  Christ  and  of  his  Spirit.     The  prophets  fre- 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  $1 

quently  employed  objects  or  events  near  at  hand  to 
picture  realities  belonging  to  the  Messianic  age. 
The  history  of  Israel  had  a  typical  relation,  on  the 
one  hand  to  the  life  of  Christ,  on  the  other  to  that 
of  his  Church;  and  Zion,  the  capital  city  and  repre- 
sentative of  Israel,  furnished  a  favorite  prophetic 
image  in  depicting  the  future  of  the  spiritual  Israel. 
Individual  personages  of  history,  as  Melchizedek, 
Moses,  Joshua,  David,  Cyrus,  undoubtedly  bore  a 
divinely  designed  resemblance,  in  some  respects,  to 
the  coming  Messiah.  The  relation  between  husband 
and  wife  afforded  an  oft-recurring  image  of  the  rela- 
tion between  God  and  the  chosen  nation,  between 
Christ  and  his  Church.  Even  the  enmity  of  Sarah 
and  Hagar  pictured  the  opposition  between  bondage 
under  the  law  and  liberty  in  the  gospel. 

With  such  a  foundation  in  the  nature  of  things, 
and  with  so  much  support  in  the  actual  usage  of  the 
Bible,  it  is  not  strange  that  there  has  always  been 
on  the  part  of  some  men  a  tendency  to  spiritualize, 
widely  and  wildly,  the  language  of  Scripture.  It  is 
common  to  speak  of  Origen  (third  century)  as  the 
father  of  Christian  allegorizing;  but  it  abounds 
already  in  some  writers  of  the  second  century,  and 
Origen  learned  much  of  it,  as  regards  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, from  Philo  the  Jew,  a  contemporary  of  our 
Lord,  the  Alexandrian  Jews  having  long  been  en- 
gaged in  this  sort  of  speculation.  Origen 's  tran- 
scendent ability,  learning,  and  power  of  creative 
imagination  contributed  much  to  make  fanciful  alle- 
gorizing popular  among  Christians.  Most  of  the 
great  Fathers,  who  have  ever  since  their  own  times 
exerted  so  powerful  an  influence  on  Christian  thought 
and  practice,  are  grievously  infected  with  this  evil. 
At  the  present  day,  not  a  few  of  the  most  learned 
and  devout  preachers  in  the  Church  of  England  and 


52  THE   TEXT— INTERPRETATION. 

among  the  German  Lutherans  run  wild  with  their 
imitations  of  Patristic  allegorizing;  while  many  very 
ignorant  men,  of  various  denominations,  following 
only  the  methods  caught  from  older  preachers  in 
their  locality,  bring  out  the  "  spiritual  sense  "  of  the 
plainest  narratives  and  precepts  in  a  fashion  wholly 
unwarranted  and  often  painfully  absurd.  In  the 
denominations  not  controlled  by  "the  Fathers," 
better  views  of  interpretation  have  for  some  time 
prevailed.  Among  Baptists,  for  instance,  the  influ- 
ence of  Fuller,  Hall,  and  others,  and  the  wider 
diffusion  of  ministerial  education,  have  wrought  a 
gratifying  change.  But  there  is  still  much  igno- 
rance to  overcome,  and  too  many  able  and  honored 
ministers  continue  sometimes  to  sanction  by  their 
potent  example  the  old-fashioned  spiritualizing.  It 
is  so  easy  and  pleasant  for  men  of  fertile  fancy  to 
break  away  from  laborious  study  of  phraseology  and 
connection,  to  cease  plodding  along  the  rough  and 
homely  paths  of  earth,  and  sport,  free  and  rejoicing, 
in  the  open  heaven ;  the  people  are  so  charmed  by 
ingenious  novelties,  so  carried  away  with  imagina- 
tive flights,  so  delighted  to  find  everywhere  types  of 
Christ  and  likenesses  to  the  spiritual  life;  it  is  so 
common  to  think  that  whatever  kindles  the  imagina- 
tion and  touches  the  heart  must  be  good  preaching, 
and  so  easy  to  insist  that  the  doctrines  of  the  ser- 
mon are  in  themselves  true  and  Scriptural,  though 
they  be  not  actually  taught  in  the  text,  —  that 
preachers  often  lose  sight  of  their  fundamental  and 
inexcusable  error,  of  saying  that  a  passage  of  God's 
Word  means  what  it  does  not  mean.  So  indepen- 
dent, too,  one  may  feel;  so  original  he  may  think 
himself.  Commentaries,  he  can  sneer  at  them  all; 
other  preachers,  he  has  little  need  of  comparing 
views  with   them.     No  need   of   anything   but  the 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  53 

resources  of  his  own  imagination,  for  such  preach* 
ing  is  too  often  only  building  castles  in  the  air. 

The  tendency  to  error  in  this  direction  is  also 
increased  by  the  fact  that  it  is  impossible,  in  respect 
to  spiritualizing,  to  draw  a  line  of  unquestionable 
distinction  between  what  is  and  what  is  not  allow- 
able. Whatever  in  the  Old  Testament  is  used  by 
New  Testament  writers  as  having  a  spiritual  sense 
is  of  course  beyond  question.  Many  insist  that  we 
must  stop  at  this;  that  nothing  whatever  is  to  be 
understood  allegorically  save  by  distinct  New  Tes- 
tament authority.  Theoretically,  this  appears  to  be 
too  strict  a  rule;  for  in  the  case  of  other  objects 
or  events  precisely  similar  to  those  which  are  used 
spiritually  in  the  New  Testament,  it  would  be  un- 
wise to  deny  that  these  also  may  have  such  a  sense. 
But,  practically,  as  to  texts^  we  can  never  feel  safe 
in  going  beyond  this  rule;  anything  not  thus  used 
in  the  New  Testament  can  only  be  spoken  of  as  pos- 
sibly, or,  at  most,  as  probably,  having  an  allegorical 
meaning;  and  while  possible  or  probable  interpre- 
tations, when  distinctly  stated  to  be  such,  may  be 
properly  used  as  yielding  part  of  the  argument  or 
illustration  of  a  sermon,  the  text,  which  is  the  foun- 
dation or  source  of  the  whole  sermon,  ought  in  the 
preacher's  judgment  really  to  have,  beyond  perad- 
venture,  the  meaning  assigned  to  it.  Let  us  add, 
that  portions  of  Scripture  which  cannot  hQ  interpreted 
as  having  a  spiritual  meaning  may  yet  be  employed 
in  various  ways  for  teaching  spiritual  truth.  They 
may  embody  principles,  capable  of  an  application  to 
spiritual  things,  though  such  an  application  must  be 
made  by  the  preacher  on  his  own  responsibility,  and 
received  by  the  people  on  their  own  judgment,  not 
as  a  part  of  the  teachings  of  Scripture.  Or  they 
may  furnish  illustrations  of  spiritual  truth,  just  as 


54  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

we  may  derive  illustration  from  everything  in  nature, 
history,  and  common  life.^ 

And  observe :  In  the  case  of  figurative  passages 
which  really  have  a  spiritual  meaning,  there  is  dan- 
ger of  pressing  the  figure  too  far,  of  fancying  a 
spiritual  sense  in  aspects  or  details  of  the  figure 
which  are  not  really  within  the  scope  of  the  inspired 
writer.  When  our  Lord  says,  "  Take  my  yoke  upon 
you,"  we  have  no  right  to  hunt  up  all  manner  of 
details  as  to  yokes  and  oxen,  and  run  a  fanciful 
parallel  as  to  each  particular;  the  general  meaning 
is  plain  enough,  and  that  is  all.  When  he  says, 
"Be  ye  wise  as  serpents,"  or,  "I  will  make  you 
fishers  of  men,"  and  in  thousands  of  Scripture  pas- 
sages the  same  principle  holds.  We  must  inquire 
what  the  sacred  speaker  or  writer  designed  by  the 
figure;  so  much  it  means,  but  beyond  that,  as  a  part 
of  Scripture,  it  means  nothing.^  Especially  com- 
mon are  errors  of  this  kind  in  the  interpretation  of 
our  Lord's  Parables.  The  stories  which  were  told 
by  the  Great  Teacher  are  illustrations  of  unrivalled 
beauty  and  impressiveness,  but  still  they  are  illus- 
trations. Like  the  illustrative  comparisons  and  inci- 
dents which  we  employ,  some  of  them  are  founded 
upon  a  closer,  and  others  upon  a  more  remote,  re- 
semblance or  analogy;  some  run  parallel  for  a  long 
distance  to  the  subject  compared  with  them,  others 
barely  touch  it  at  a  single  point.  When  Christ's 
coming  is  said  to  be  like  that  of  a  thief  in  the  night, 
the  resemblance  extends  only  to  unexpectedness ;  as 
to  the  character  and  objects  of  those  who  come,  and 
almost  everything  else  that  is  involved,  the  illus- 
tration and  the  thing  illustrated  are  utterly  unlike. 

^  Comp.  Vinet,  p.  120. 

2  There  is  good  instruction  on  this  subject  in  Fairbairn's  Herme- 
neutical  Manual,  pp.  157-173. 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  55 

And  when  it  is  said,  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
like  leaven,  which  a  woman  took,  and  hid  in  three 
measures  of  meal,  till  the  whole  was  leavened " 
(Matt.  xiii.  33),  what  sense  is  there  in  looking  for 
some  spiritual  truth  illustrated  by  the  number  three, 
or  in  saying  that  the  woman  represents  the  Church, 
when  as  a  matter  of  course  a  woman  and  not  a 
man  would  be  introduced  in  a  story  as  making 
up  bread?  In  undertaking  to  interpret  a  parable, 
we  must  learn  from  the  connection  what  subject  our 
Lord  used  it  to  illustrate  —  must  then  notice  what 
light  the  parable  as  a  whole  throws  on  that  subject, 
what  aspects  of  the  subject  it  brings  to  our  view  — 
and  finally  inquire  how  far  we  may  fairly  regard  the 
several  details  of  the  story  as  separately  significant. 
In  this  last  respect  we  must  avoid  extremes,  exer- 
cise sound  judgment,  and  constantly  keep  in  mind 
that  the  parable  is  an  illustration,  and  founded  on 
some  resemblance  or  analogy  which  is  at  best  only 
partial.  After  thus  studying  one  of  the  parables 
of  Christ,  we  are  prepared  to  preach  upon  it,  with 
some  prospect  of  bringing  out  its  real  meaning  and 
legitimate  applications. 

§  3.      EXAMPLES   OF  TEXTS   OFTEN   MISAPPLIED. 

There  has  been  during  the  present  century  considerable 
improvement  in  various  quarters  as  regards  strict  interpre- 
tation in  the  pulpit.  But  to  show  how  much  laxity  on  the 
subject  still  prevails,  it  is  proposed  to  mention  a  few  ex- 
amples of  passages  which  are  often  used  by  preachers  as 
texts  or  in  argument,  and  whose  meaning  is  beyond  ques- 
tion very  different  from  that  commonly  attached  to  them. 
It  is  strange  how  powerful  is  the  tradition  of  the  pulpit ; 
how  often  able  and  thoughtful  men  will  go  all  their  lives 
taking  for  granted  that  an  important  passage  has  that  mean- 
ing which  in  youth  they  heard  ascribed  to  it,  when  the 
slightest  examination  would  show  them  that  it  is  far  other- 


56  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

wise.  The  examples  here  given  are  arranged  in  the  order 
of  the  three  sources  of  error  as  to  interpretation  which 
have  been  discussed  in  the  foregoing  section,  though  of 
course  these  will  sometimes  be  combined  in  the  same  pas- 
sage. Many  of  the  texts  to  be  noted  have  been  corrected 
in  the  Revised  Version,  especially  in  the  marginal  render- 
ings. The  preacher  should  be  very  careful  not  to  use  any 
text  without  first  consulting  the  Revised  Version. 

(i)  Misunderstanding  the  phraseology  of  the  text  itself. 
Jer.  iii.  4,  "  My  father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth." 
This  is  very  often  used  in  preaching  to  the  young,  and  given 
as  a  motto  on  the  title-page  of  books  for  the  young,  the  idea 
being  that  young  people  should  seek  the  guidance  of  our 
Heavenly  Father.  But  this  is  to  miss  the  Scripture  use  of 
the  phrase,  "  guide  of  my  youth,"  as  well  as  to  disregard  the 
connection  of  the  passage.  In  Prov.  ii.  17  it  is  plain  that 
*^  guide  of  her  youth"  (more  exactly,  companion,  associate 
of  her  youth,  R.  V.,  marg.)  denotes  the  husband.  Here  in 
Jeremiah  it  is  the  same  Hebrew  word.  The  whole  con- 
nection of  chapters  ii.  and  iii.  shows  that  God  through  the 
prophet  is  reproaching  the  nation  as  an  adulterous  spouse, 
who  deserves  to  be  utterly  cast  off;  but  still  he  invites  her 
to  return  to  him.  "  Wilt  thou  not  from  this  time  cry  unto 
me,  My  father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth?"  Thou 
art  my  early  husband,  the  companion  of  my  youth  (comp. 
Jer.  ii.  2;  Hos.  ii.  15),  and  I  return  unto  thee.  And  the 
term  "  father "  is  just  a  respectful  form  of  address  used  by 
the  wife  to  her  husband,  as  Naaman's  servants  called  him 
"my  father"  (2  Kings  v.  13).  Thus  the  common  applica- 
tion of  the  passage  is  utterly  erroneous. 

Eccl.  xii.  I,  "  Remember  now  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of 
thy  youth."  Here  the  word  "  now  "  is  often  much  insisted 
on.  But  the  Hebrew  is  simply  "and  remember,"  R.  V., 
"  remember  also,"  etc.  King  James'  translators,  not  per- 
ceiving the  propriety  of  the  connection  indicated  by  "  and," 
and  finding  it  entirely  omitted  by  their  favorite  authorities, 
the  Vulgate  and  Luther,  used,  as  a  sort  of  compromise,  the 
particle  of  transition  "  now."  The  connection  is  really  very 
fine.     "Rejoice,   O    young   man,    in  thy  youth  .  .  .  and 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  57 

walk  in  the  ways  of  thine  heart  .  .  .  and  know  that  for  all 
these  things  God  will  bring  thee  into  judgment.  And 
remove  sorrow  from  thy  heart,  and  put  away  evil  from  thy 
flesh  ;  for  childhood  and  youth  are  a  breath.  And  remem- 
ber thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth,"  etc. 

Prov.  viii.  17,  "They  that  seek  me  early  shall  find  me." 
This  does  not  at  all  mean  early  in  life,  as  it  is  so  constantly 
taken.  Our  translators,  following  the  Vulgate,  understood 
the  Hebrew  to  signify  early  in  the  morning,  there  being  a 
cognate  word  which  denotes  morning ;  and  the  idea  they 
intended  to  convey  was  similar  to  that  of  Jer.  vii.  13,  "  And 
I  spake  unto  you,  rising  up  early  and  speaking,  but  ye  heard 
not."  Their  phrase  thus  gives  substantially  the  same  sense 
with  the  view  of  recent  scholars,  who  suppose  that  there  is 
no  connection  with  the  idea  of  morning,  and  explain  the 
word  as  signifying  to  seek  (so  the  Septuagint),  or  to  seek 
zealously,  earnestly  (R.  V.,  "  diligently."  Comp.  Prov.  i. 
28  ;  Psa.  Ixiii.  i ;  Hos.  v.  15).  Thus  the  passage  has  no 
specific,  much  less  exclusive,  reference  to  the  young. 

Psa.  xxiii.  4,  "  Yea,  though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil."  To  many  it  would 
seem  almost  sacrilege  to  say  that  this  passage  has  no  direct 
reference  to  the  time  when  one  is  drawing  near  to  death. 
The  shadow  of  death,  the  dark  place  where  the  dead  are,  is 
an  image  frequently  employed  in  the  Old  Testament  to 
denote  the  densest  darkness.  Thus  in  Amos  v.  8,  God  is 
described  as  "  He  that  maketh  the  seven  stars  and  Orion, 
and  turneth  the  shadow  of  death  into  the  morning,  and 
maketh  the  day  dark  with  night."  Here  it  means  the  dark- 
ness of  night.  In  Psa.  cvii.  10,  "  Such  as  sat  in  darkness 
and  the  shadow  of  death,  bound  in  affliction  and  iron,"  the 
reference  is  to  the  darkness  of  a  dungeon.  In  Jer.  ii.  7, 
"  Where  is  the  Lord  that  brought  us  up  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  that  led  us  through  the  wilderness  .  .  .  through  a 
land  of  drought,  and  of  the  shadow  of  death,  through  a  land 
that  no  man  passed  through,"  the  darkness  of  a  gloomy 
desert  is  meant.  In  Isa.  ix.  2,  "  The  people  that  walked  in 
darkness  have  seen  a  great  light;  they  that  dwell  in  the 
land  of  the  shadow  of  death,   upon  them  hath  the  light 


58  THE  TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

shined,"  it  is  the  darkness  of  destitution,  ignorance,  and 
affliction.  (Comp.  Matt.  iv.  i6.)  The  phrase  is  used  in 
various  other  passages,  but  always  meaning  dense  darkness, 
literal  or  figurative,  and  nowhere  having  any  reference  to 
dying.  Now  in  Psa.  xxiii.  4,  the  image  is  that  of  a  flock 
led  through  a  deep,  narrow,  very  dark  valley,  such  as  abound 
in  Judea,  with  wild  beasts  lurking  in  the  thickets  on  either 
hand,  where  the  timid  sheep  would  fear  hurt,  unless  pro- 
tected by  the  shepherd  ;  the  Psalmist  says  that  though  walk- 
ing in  the  darkest  valley  (R.  V.  margin,  deep  darkness),  dark 
as  the  grave,  he  will  fear  no  evil,  etc.  And  the  image  will 
naturally  suggest  any  season  or  experience  of  life  in  which 
the  believer  would  naturally  feel  alarm  and  distress,  but  may 
be  safe  in  his  Shepherd's  presence  and  protection.  Such 
are  temptation,  sickness,  bereavement,  and  death  too,  not 
because  the  word  death  is  employed,  but  because  the  image 
of  passing  through  a  valley  dark  as  the  grave  naturally 
applies  to  death,  and  not  as  the  single  application,  but  as 
one  of  many.  Thus  a  correct  understanding  of  the  passage 
does  not  destroy,  but  widens,  its  significance.-^ 

Rom.  xii.  i,  "Present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice." 
Here  many  will  begin  to  speak  of  making  sacrifices,  in  our 
derivative  sense  of  that  term.  But  the  thought  of  the  text 
is,  that  as  men  presented  at  the  altar  the  bodies  of  beasts  as 
sacrifices,  so  we  must  consecrate  ourselves  unto  God ;  and 
this  is  a  "  reasonable  service,"  a  worship  of  the  rational  or 
spiritual  nature,  and  not  a  mere  bodily  worship,  made  up  of 
outward  acts  and  ofierings. 

I  Tim.  ii.  8,  "  I  will  that  men  pray  everywhere,"  etc.  The 
Greek  gives  "  the  men ''  (as  R.  V.),  and  has  the  pecuHar  word 
which  signifies  man  as  opposed  to  woman.  The  apostle  is 
giving  directions  for  the  conduct  of  public  worship,  and  says 
that  the  men  must  pray  in  every  place,  lifting  up  holy  hands, 
without  wrath  and  disputing.  These  phrases  embody  the 
special  dangers  with  reference  to  men  when  engaging  in 
public  worship  ;  and  in  the  next  verse  he  says  that  women, 

1  Bunyan  in  the  Pilgrim's  Progress  uses  the  image  correctly,  mak- 
ing his  pilgrim  pass  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  some 
time  before  he  reaches  the  river. 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  59 

for  their  part,  must  not  dress  too  fine,  but  be  adorned  with 
good  works. 

2  Tim.  ii.  15,  "  Study  to  show  thyself  approved  unto  God," 
etc.  This  is  often  quoted,  and  sometimes  made  a  text,  as 
teaching  that  a  minister  must  study,  namely,  study  books, 
especially  the  Bible  —  study  nature,  human  nature,  etc.  The 
real  meaning  of  our  version,  as  of  the  original,  is  endeavor, 
studiously  endeavor  to  present  thyself  approved  unto  God. 
The  Revised  Version  has  "  give  diligence." 

Heb. vii.  25,  "Wherefore  he  is  able  to  save  them  to  the 
uttermost  that  come  to  God  by  him,"  is  a  favorite  text  as 
showing  that  Christ  is  able  to  save  the  worst  sinners.  The 
real  meaning  of  the  phrase  —  as  the  connection  also  might 
show  —  is,  save  to  the  utmost,  to  the  full  extent  of  saving. 
As  our  High  Priest  does  not  transmit  his  office  to  successors, 
and  leave  to  others  the  work  he  has  begun,  but  ever  lives  to 
intercede  for  those  who  come  to  God  through  him,  he  is  able 
to  save  them  completely  —  not  merely  to  begin  their  salva- 
tion, but  to  carry  it  forward  in  life  and  death  till  in  eternity 
it  is  complete. 

(2)  Disregarding  the  connection.  Col.  ii.  21,  "Touch 
not,  taste  not,  handle  not."  These  words  have  been  a 
thousand  times  blazoned  on  banners  and  quoted  by  impas- 
sioned orators,  as  a  precept  of  Holy  Writ  against  the  use 
of  intoxicating  drinks.  The  slightest  attention  to  the  con- 
nection would  show,  that  in  the  first  place,  they  are  not 
spoken  with  any  reference  to  that  subject,  and  in  the  second 
place,  that  they  are  given  by  the  apostle  as  an  example  of 
ascetic  precepts  to  which  we  ought  not  to  conform,  "  If  ye 
died  with  Christ  from  the  rudiments  of  the  world,  why,  as 
though  living  in  the  world,  do  ye  subject  yourselves  to  ordi- 
nances, Handle  not,  nor  taste,  nor  touch,  .  .  .  after  the  com- 
mandments and  teachings  of  men?"  (R.  V.)  There  are 
many  passages  of  Scripture  which  enjoin  temperance,  but 
this  is  certainly  not  one  of  them. 

Heb.  vi.  I,  "  Let  us  go  on  unto  perfection,"  is  a  favorite 
text  with  some  of  those  who  maintain  the  possibility  of  sin- 
less perfection  in  this  life.  But  the  sacred  writer  is  speaking 
of  knowledge,  and  urges  progress  toward  maturity  of  knowl- 


66  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

edge.  The  word  in  the  preceding  verse  (v.  14)  rendered 
"  of  full  age  "  is  literally  "  perfect  j  "  so  that  the  two  verses 
have  a  close  verbal  connection,  besides  the  general  connec- 
tion in  sense. 

I  Cor.  ii.  9,  '*  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither 
have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things  which  God 
hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him,"  is  constantly  quoted 
as  referring  to  the  glory  and  blessedness  of  heaven ;  but  the 
connection  leaves  no  doubt  that  the  apostle  refers  to  the  pro- 
found wisdom  of  the  plan  of  salvation,  which  no  human  mind 
could  have  perceived  or  imagined,  but  which  "  God  has  re- 
vealed unto  us  by  his  Spirit." 

Mark  ix.  8,  "  Jesus  only."  To  make  these  words  a  text, 
and  discourse  upon  Jesus  only  as  Prophet,  Jesus  only  as 
Priest,  Jesus  only  as  King,  etc.,  is  an  extreme  instance  of 
disregarding  the  context.  At  the  close  of  the  transfiguration) 
'*  suddenly,  when  they  had  looked  round  about,  they  saw  no 
man  any  more,  save  Jesus  only  with  themselves. "  Now  it  is 
very  true  that  we  must  have  Jesus  only  as  Prophet,  Priest, 
and  King,  but  who  will  say  that  this  passage  teaches  that, 
or  even  fairly  suggests  it?  And  the  mere  words,  taken 
entirely  apart  from  what  the  sacred  writer  meant  by  them, 
are  no  more  a  saying  of  Scripture,  than  if  "  Jesus  "  had  been 
taken  from  Mark,  and  "  only  "  from  Romans ;  and  the  two 
combined  as  a  text. 

Isa.  i.  5,  6,  *'  The  whole  head  is  sick,  and  the  whole  heart 
faint.  From  the  sole  of  the  foot  even  unto  the  head  there  is 
no  soundness  in  it ;  but  wounds,  and  bruises,  and  putrefying 
sores,"  etc.  This  is  sometimes  used  as  a  text,  and  perpetu- 
ally cited  as  a  proof-text,  to  show  the  total  depravity  of  man. 
But  look  at  the  connection.  The  nation  of  Israel  had  been 
stricken  with  the  divine  judgments^  till  it  was  like  a  man  beaten 
with  the  terrible  Oriental  scourging,  from  head  to  foot,  and 
with  wounds  and  stripes  unhealed  ;  the  country  was  desolate, 
the  cities  burned,  and  Jerusalem  stood  alone  in  a  wilderness. 
And  the  prophet  asks,  Why  should  ye  be  stricken  any  more  ? 
If  it  is  done,  you  will  revolt  still  more.  Already  you  are 
beaten  from  head  to  foot,  but  punishment  makes  you  no 
better,  it  even  seems  to  make  you  worse.     Now  this  would 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  6l 

be  an  excellent  text  for  showing  how  often  nations,  com- 
munities, individuals,  refuse  to  be  subdued  by  afflictions, 
and  go  on  in  their  wickedness ;  and  there  is  in  this  respect 
a  proof  here  of  the  depravity  of  man.  But  the  image,  the 
whole  head  is  sick,  etc.,  is  clearly  not  at  all  designed  to  set 
forth  depravity,  but  severe  chastisement. 

Isa.  Ixiii.  1-3,  "Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom,  with 
bright-red  garments  from  Bozrah?  ...  I  that  speak  in 
righteousness,  mighty  to  save.  Wherefore  art  thou  red  in 
thine  apparel  ?  .  .  .  I  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone." 
How  often  this  is  held  to  denote  our  Saviour  as  shedding 
his  blood,  and  suffering  alone,  for  our  salvation.  And  yet 
what  can  be  plainer  than  that  this  is  a  conqueror,  stained 
with  his  enemies'  blood,  and  fighting  alone?  In  the  same 
sentence  he  says,  "  For  I  will  tread  them  in  mine  anger,  and 
trample  them  in  my  fury ;  and  their  blood  shall  be  sprinkled 
upon  my  garments."  (Comp.  also  verses  4-6.)  Here  the 
speaker  is  the  conqueror  of  Edom,  and  deliverer  of  Israel. 
If  understood  as  applying  to  Messiah,  it  must  be  to  him  as 
conquering  his  people's  enemies,  and  mighty  to  save  in  this 
sense.  In  Rev.  xix.  11-16,  the  same  imagery  is  employed 
in  describing  the  Word  of  God ;  yet  there  too  it  is  not  a 
sufferer  but  a  conqueror. 

I  Kings  xviii.  21,  "  How  long  halt  ye  between  two  opin- 
ions ?  "  The  favorite  use  of  this  text  is  to  reproach  men 
with  indecision  and  hesitation  as  to  becoming  Christians. 
But  the  Israelites  were  not  undecided  as  to  whether  they 
would  serve  Jehovah  or  Baal,  they  were  trying  to  serve  both, 
to  conform  to  the  fashionable  court-religion,  and  yet  retain 
the  religion  of  their  fathers.  Elijah  reproaches  them  with 
this  effort  to  do  both.  Serve  Jehovah,  or  else  Baal,  not 
first  one  and  then  the  other.  (Comp.  "Ye  cannot  serve 
God  and  Mammon.") 

(3)  Improper  spiritualizing,  etc.  Amos  vi.  i,  "Woe  to 
them  that  are  at  ease  in  Zion."  Here  Zion  is  the  Church, 
those  at  ease  in  Zion  are  the  slothful,  worthless  members  of 
the  Church  ,  and  away  we  go.  But  the  prophet  adds,  "  and 
trust  in  the  mountain  of  Samaria ; "  what  is  the  "  spiritual 
sense"  of  that?    The  chiefs  of  Judah  trusted  in  the  strong 


62  THE  TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

fortifications  of  Jerusalem,  and  those  of  the  northern  king- 
dom in  Samaria,  and  so  they  were  not  alarmed  by  the  pro- 
phetic warnings  that  enemies  would  come  and  destroy  those 
capitals,  as  other  great  cities  had  been  destroyed.  Woe  to 
them,  if  quietly  confiding  in  Jerusalem  and  Samaria,  they 
did  not  repent  of  their  wickedness,  and  trust  in  God.  The 
application  of  this  in  time  of  war  is  manifest  and  impor- 
tant. The  principle  might  also  be  applied  to  any  reliance 
upon  human  instrumentalities,  or  outward  agencies,  instead 
of  relying  on  God.  The  do-nothing  members  of  a  church 
deserve  severe  scourging,  but  this  text  does  not  touch  them. 

Exod.  ii.  9,  "  Take  this  child  away,  and  nurse  it  for  me, 
and  I  will  give  thee  thy  wages."  And  some  able  men 
actually  make  this  a  text  in  preaching  to  parents,  or  to 
Sunday  School  teachers.  "  God  says  to  you.  Take  this 
child,"  etc.  But  he  says  no  such  thing.  He  simply  tells 
us  that  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh  said  this  to  the  mother  of 
Moses.  God  does  not  address  these  words  to  anybody. 
To  find  here  a  spiritual  meaning  is  so  wholly  unwarranted, 
so  utterly  arbitrary,  as  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  argument. 
If  the  preacher  says  that  he  takes  the  words  in  the  sense 
proposed,  then  they  are  not  Scripture  at  all,  —  not  God's 
saying,  but  his  saying,  —  and  ought  not  to  be  called  a  text, 
for  that  means  Scripture.  It  would  be  just  as  appropriate 
to  take  Prov.  xxiii.  30,  "  Tarry  long  at  the  wine,"  as  a 
divine  precept,  or  Psa.  xiv.  i,  "  There  is  no  God,"  as  a 
declaration  of  Scripture.  Whether  as  allegorizing  or  as 
"  accommodation,"  such  an  application  of  the  text  is  inde- 
fensible, and  when  once  a  man's  attention  has  been  called 
to  the  matter,  it  would  be  inexcusable. 

Jonah  i.  6,  *' What  meanest  thou,  O  sleeper?"  How 
can  a  preacher  tell  us  that  these  words  refer  to  sinners  as 
spiritually  asleep?  Jonah,  worn  out  with  his  hasty  and 
anxious  journey  to  Joppa,  and  now  safe  aboard,  was  soundly 
sleeping ;  and  the  ship-captain,  alarmed  and  impatient,  shouts 
at  him,  "What  are  you  about,  fast  asleep?  arise,  call  upon 
thy  God,"  as  all  the  rest  are  doing.  A  minister  can  utter 
these  words  to  sleeping  sinners,  but  he  may  not  say  that 
God  addresses  this  question  to  them,  or  to  any  one.     God's 


THE  TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  63 

Word  simply  narrates  the  fact  that  the  ship-captain  thus 
spoke ;  he  does  not  himself  speak  the  words  at  all.  As 
merely  the  minister's  words,  they  would  not  be  a  part  of 
Scripture.  As  to  any  properly  allegorical  meaning  hidden 
in  the  words,  it  is  a  sheer  figment,  and  must  be  proven,  not 
recklessly  assumed. 

Prov.  xviii.  24,  "  There  is  a  friend  that  sticketh  closer  than 
a  brother."  It  is  commonly  held  that  in  the  eighth  chapter 
of  Proverbs  there  is  some  allusion  to  Christ,  —  which  is  not 
at  all  certain,  —  and  hence  any  passage  in  Proverbs  at  will  is 
taken  as  referring  to  Christ.  But  at  chapter  x.  there  begins 
a  manifestly  distinct  collection,  containing  a  number  of  de- 
tached proverbs,  exceedingly  instructive  and  useful  for  our 
practical  guidance  in  life,  but  having  not  the  slightest  appear- 
ance of  a  mystical  character.  The  proverbs  which  here 
immediately  precede  and  follow,  and  the  other  half  of  this 
proverb,  are  about  common  matters.  Verse  2 1,  power  of  the 
tongue  ;  verse  22,  blessing  of  finding  a  wife ;  verse  23,  the  poor 
entreats,  the  rich  answers  roughly ;  and  as  to  the  succeeding 
proverbs,  verse  i  (next  chapter),  the  poor  who  walks  in  his 
integrity,  and  the  perverse  fool,  etc.,  etc.  Verse  24  is  ren- 
dered, "  A  man  that  hath  friends  must  show  himself  friendly ; 
and  there  is  a  friend  that  sticketh  closer  than  a  brother." 
The  first  half  is  in  the  Hebrew  obscure,  but  most  probably 
means  "  a  man  of  [many]  associates  will  ruin  himself,"  by 
misplaced  confidence,  or  "  will  prove  bad,"  cannot  be  faithful 
to  them  all.  However  that  may  be,  the  general  subject  is 
plainly  the  common  friendships  of  life  ;  and  there  is  no  hint 
of  allusion  to  Christ.  And  then  it  is  added  that  there  are 
some  close  and  permanent  friendships,  there  is  a  friend  (lit- 
erally, '^  lover  ")  that  sticketh  closer  than  a  brother  ;  not  refer- 
ring to  any  particular  individual,  but  meaning  that  such  a  thing 
does  exist.    We  need  not  condemn  the  poet's  use  of  this 

expression, 

"  One  there  is  above  all  others 

Well  deserves  the  name  of  friend  : 
His  is  love  beyond  a  brother's,"  etc. ; 

but  the  license  of  poetical  adaptation  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  interpretation.     One  might  take  this  proverb  as  a  text, 


64  THE  TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

and  speak  of  the  friendships  that  are  close  and  faithful,  and 
then  pass  by  analogy,  on  his  own  responsibility,  to  speak  of 
Christ  as  a  friend ;  but  that  is  not  saying  that  this  passage 
refers  to  Christ. 

It  has  seemed  necessary  to  discuss  the  above  passages  with 
some  care,  because  the  inexperienced  reader  might  naturally 
be  slow  to  beheve  that  so  many  favorite  texts  have  been 
utterly  misunderstood,  by  himself  and  by  many  preachers 
around  him.  No  infallibility  is  claimed  for  the  particular 
interpretations  here  given.  The  thing  urged  is  to  form  the 
habit  of  carefully  studying  every  text,  even  the  most  familiar 
and  apparently  obvious,  to  see  if  it  really  does  mean  what  the 
preacher  has  hitherto  supposed.  This  practice  will  rob  him 
of  many  texts,  but  will  enrich  him  with  many  others.  Most 
of  those  above  considered,  when  the  common  application 
has  been  set  aside,  are  found  to  have  a  sense  that  may  be 
made  interesting  and  useful.  And  by  careful  examination 
many  another  passage  will  develop  unsuspected  riches.  If 
strict  interpretation  of  texts  brought  unmitigated  loss  of 
material,  we  ought  still  to  practise  it,  for  the  sake  of  dealing 
honestly  with  our  own  minds,  and  with  God's  Word ;  but  the 
habit  of  strict  interpretation  will  give  far  more  than  it  takes 
away.  If  one  knows  the  Hebrew  or  the  Greek,  let  him 
never  preach  upon  a  text  without  carefully  studying  it  and 
its  context  in  the  original.  Otherwise,  let  him  search  the 
best  translations  and  good  explanatory  notes,  determined 
that  he  will  never  say  a  passage  of  God's  holy  and  precious 
Word  means  so  and  so,  without  personal,  honest,  patient 
effort  to  ascertain  the  fact. 


§  4.    SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THE  STUDY  OF  TEXTS. 

Though  we  have  discussed  at  length  the  chief 
sources  of  error  in  the  interpretation  of  texts,  and 
illustrated  them  by  many  examples,  it  seems  best  to 
give,  positively,  some  account  of  the  principles  upon 
which  one  must  proceed  if  he  would  interpret  cor- 
rectly.    Good  treatises  on  Interpretation  are  acces- 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  65 

sible,^  and  it  is  sufficient  here  to  give  a  few  brief 
suggestions.  In  regard  to  interpretation,  we  must 
distinguish  the  preliminary  study  of  a  text  with  a 
view  to  preaching  upon  it  from  that  general  study  of 
the  Bible  which  should  be  a  part  of  every  preacher's 
regular  work,  and  also  from  the  popular  explanation 
of  the  text  which  forms  part  of  the  sermon.  This 
will  be  treated  later.  ^  The  suggestions  here  offered 
are  intended  to  aid  the  preacher  in  getting  for  him- 
self the  exact  meaning  of  the  passage  of  Scripture 
which  he  proposes  to  use  as  the  text  for  his  sermon. 
And  this  is  surely  what  every  preacher  should  feel 
in  conscience  bound  to  do.  Whatever  helps  he  may 
use,  in  the  way  of  commentaries,  lexicons,  gram- 
mars, books  of  illustration  and  the  like,  he  should 
see  to  it  that  the  interpretation  which  he  adopts  is 
his  own.  That  is,  the  meaning  of  the  text  which  he 
proposes  to  unfold  and  enforce  in  his  sermon  should 
be  in  all  cases  his  own  carefully  formed  view  of  the 
passage,  —  the  fruit  of  earnest  reflection  and  study. 
Hints  that  may  prove  of  service  in  making  such  a 
study  will  now  be  given  in  the  form  of  rules. 

(i)  Study  the  text  minutely.  Notice  carefully  both 
the  grammar  and  the  rhetoric  of  the  text,  {a)  En- 
deavor to  ascertain  the  precise  meaning  of  the  words 
and  phrases  used  in  the  text.  Inquire  whether  any 
of  them  have  a  peculiar  sense  in  Scripture,  and 
whether  such  peculiar  sense  holds  in  this  passage. 
If  there  are  key-words  in  the  text,  or  words  of 
special  importance,  examine,  by  the  help  of  a  con- 
cordance, other  passages  in  which  such  word  is  em- 

1  Such  as  Fairbairn's  Hermeneutical  Manual  (for  the  New  Testa- 
ment), Davidson's  Biblical  Hermeneutics  (particularly  full  on  the 
History  of  Interpretation),  Angus'  Bible  Hand-Book,  Barrows'  Com- 
panion to  the  Bible  (new,  cheap,  and  on  this  subject  very  good)« 
Home's  Introduction. 

2  See  below,  chapter  vi.  §  2. 

5 


66  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

ployed.  This  is  best  done  in  the  original,  because 
our  version  will  often  have  the  same  word  where  the 
Hebrew  or  Greek  is  different,  and  the  same  Greek 
or  Hebrew  word  will  be  used  in  important  passages 
where  our  version  renders  differently.  There  are 
admirable  concordances  of  the  Hebrew  and  the 
Greek,  and  where  these  are  not  in  possession,  the 
lexicons  of  those  languages  will  give  many  refer- 
ences, frequently  all.  In  cases  of  special  import- 
ance, able  men  not  acquainted  with  the  originals 
have  found  it  useful  to  employ  the  Englishman's 
Greek  Concordance  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
the  Englishman's  Hebrew  Concordance  of  the  Old 
Testament.  For  the  New  Testament  the  index  to 
Winer's  or  Buttmann's  Grammar  will  show  whether 
the  author  has  explained  any  grammatical  construc- 
tions in  the  text.  The  best  translations  into  our 
own  or  other  languages  will  often  throw  light  on 
the  text,  or  raise  questions  as  to  its  meaning  which 
we  may  find  it  useful  to  pursue.  Familiar  passages 
often  assume  great  freshness,  and  suggest  new  trains 
of  thought,  when  looked  at  in  a  new  English  ver- 
sion,^ or  a  translation  into  Latin,  French,  German, 
etc.  Even  those  who  can  use  the  original  languages 
find  this  true,  because  one  is  so  apt  when  looking  at 
the  Hebrew  or  Greek  to  be  really  looking  through  it 
at  the  familiar  English  version,  as  if  written  under- 
neath. And  then,  by  all  means,  examine  the  best 
accessible  commentaries,  not  mainly  such  as  remark 
upon  the  text,  and  enlarge  upon  its  teachings,  but 
such  as  carefully  explain  the  exact  meaning. 

This  grammatical  study  of  the  text  can  scarcely 

^  The  Revised  New  Testament  of  the  American  Baptist  Publica- 
tion Society  is  in  the  main  very  correct,  fairly  representing  the  best 
scholarship  of  the  day,  and  is  a  valuable  help  for  the  interpretation 
of  texts.  Of  course  the  Revised  (Canterbury)  Version  should  be  con- 
•tantly  used. 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  6/ 

be  made  too  minute  or  protracted.  Whately  used 
to  say,  "Before  writing  your  sermon,  look  at  your 
text  with  a  microscope,"^  and  Shedd  justly  remarks: 
"  Every  particle  of  care  in  first  obtaining  an  excel- 
lent text  and  then  getting  at,  and  getting  out,  its 
real  meaning  and  scope,  goes  to  render  the  actual 
construction  and  composition  of  the  sermon  more 
easy  and  successful.  Labor  at  this  point  saves  labor 
at  all  after  points. "  ^ 

{b)  Pay  special  attention  to  any  figures  of  speech 
that  may  occur  in  the  text  or  its  connection. 
Wherever  it  is  clear,  from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
from  the  connection,  or  from  precisely  similar  ex- 
pressions in  other  passages,  that  the  literal  sense  is 
not  designed,  then  we  must  understand  figuratively. 
In  the  language  of  Scripture,  as  in  all  other  lan- 
guage, the  presumption  is  in  favor  of  the  literal 
sense.  To  explain  away  as  figurative  whatever  seems 
to  conflict  with  doctrinal  prejudices,  or  with  fanciful 
notions  and  morbid  feelings  as  to  ethics  or  aesthetics, 
or  with  hasty  inferences  from  imperfectly  estab- 
lished scientific  facts,  is  to  trifle  with  that  which  we 
-acknowledge  as  an  authoritative  revelation.  Still, 
there  is  very  much  in  Scripture  that  is  clearly  figur- 
ative; and  very  much  more  which  might  so  readily 
be  thus  understood,  in  the  light  of  other  Scripture 
usage,  that  we  ought  to  be  careful  about  building 
important  theories  upon  its  literal  sense.  This  is 
especially  true  as  regards  prophecies  of  things  yet  to 
come,  in  which  it  is  of  necessity  quite  difficult  to 
distinguish  beforehand  between  literal  and  figura- 
tive, though  the  fulfilment  will  some  day  make  it 
plain.  And  remember  that  language  may  be  highly 
figurative  without  being  fictitious.     Only  ascertain 

1  Life  and  Remains  of  "Whately,  p.  402. 
8  Shedd,  Horn.,  p.  176. 


68  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

what  the  figures  of  Scripture  were  designed  to  mean, 
and  that  meaning  is  as  certainly  true  as  if  stated 
in  plain  words.  Thus  the  "fire  that  cannot  be 
quenched  "  may  be  called  a  figure,  if  you  choose ; 
yet  it  assuredly  means  that  in  hell  there  will  be 
something  as  bad  as  fire,  something  as  torturing  as 
fire  is  to  the  earthly  body  —  nay,  the  reality  of  hell, 
as  well  as  of  heaven,  does  no  doubt  greatly  transcend 
the  most  impressive  imagery  that  earthly  things  can 
afford.  1 

Particularly  are  great  care  and  good  sense  needed 
in  the  study  of  the  allegories  of  Scripture.  We 
cannot  take  it  for  granted  that  any  passage  has  an 
allegorical,  or  so-called  "  spiritual "  sense,  merely 
because  the  notion  suits  our  fancy,  or  would  promote 
our  convenience.  There  must  be  good  reason  to 
think  so.  Whatever  the  New  Testament  so  uses, 
is  certainly  allegorical;  whatever  else  is  precisely 
similar  to  matters  so  used  in  the  New  Testament,  is 
very  probably  allegorical.  Farther  than  this  we 
have  surely  no  right  to  go.  We  may  derive  illus- 
tration, our  own  illustration,  of  spiritual  things  from 
perhaps  everything  in  Scripture  history,  prophecies, 
and  proverbs,  as  we  may  from  profane  history  and 
from  nature ;  but  we  have  no  more  right  to  present 
the  former  as  interpretation  than  the  latter.  Joseph 
furnishes  a  good  illustration,  in  certain  respects,  of 
Christ ;  and  so  does  the  Athenian  who  held  up  his 
mutilated  arm  before  the  people  to  plead  for  his 
brother.  Why  then,  merely  because  we  can  draw 
illustration  from  the  case  of  Joseph,  shall  we  call 
him  a  "  type  "  of  Christ  ?  Moreover,  because  some 
things  in  the  Levitical  rites,  the  history  of  Joshua, 
David,  or  Cyrus,  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  or  the 

1  Comp.  Barrows,  Companion  to  the  Bible,  chap,  xxxv.;  Lord, 
Laws  of  Figurative  Language. 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  69 

book  of  Isaiah,  have,  in  addition  to  their  natural 
sense,  an  allegorical  reference  to  Christ,  it  does  not 
follow  that  everything  comprised  therein  has  such  a 
reference.  As  to  the  whole  subject,  we  must  avoid 
extremes ;  and  it  would  seem  to  be  a  good  rule  as  to 
preaching,  that  while  probable  allegorical  meanings 
may  be  adduced,  as  probable,  in  the  progress  of  a 
discourse,  no  allegorical  meaning  shall  be  made  the 
basis  of  the  sermon,  which  does  not  result  from 
an  interpretation  having  clear  warrant  in  Scripture 
usage.  And  two  things  deserve  to  be  carefully 
borne  in  mind.  The  rage  for  "  spiritualizing  "  causes 
many  to  overlook,  or  practically  neglect,  the  ex- 
ceedingly varied  and  valuable  lessons  as  to  Divine 
Providence  and  human  duty  which  are  afforded  by 
passages  in  their  natural  sense.  Those  who  insist 
on  making  Joseph  a  type  of  Christ  are  apt  never  to 
hold  up  before  their  hearers  his  interesting  and 
impressive  example  of  steadfast  faith  in  God  amid 
crushing  adversity  and  sudden  prosperity,  of  resist- 
ance to  powerful  temptation  because  yielding  would 
be  to  "sin  against  God,"  of  wise  affection  in  dealing 
with  his  kindred,  and  the  like.  So  in  a  thousand 
instances,  and  there  is  here  one  way  in  which  com- 
pensation may  be  found  for  the  loss  arising  from  the 
abandonment  of  wild  spiritualizing.  The  other  con- 
sideration is,  that  many  passages  which  can  be  inter- 
preted only,  so  far  as  we  have  warrant  to  go,  in  a 
natural  sense,  may  yield  copious  instruction  as  to 
properly  spiritual  things,  in  that  the  principle  they 
contain,  or  the  analogy  they  present,  may  be  by  us 
applied  or  extended  to  something  spiritual  —  this 
being  done  on  our  own  responsibility,  yet  sustained 
by  manifest  propriety,  and  by  other  passages. 

(2)  Study  the  text  in  its  immediate  connection.     The 
connection  of  thought  in  which  a  text  stands  will  of 


70  THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION. 

course  throw  light  upon  its  meaning,  and  is  usually 
indispensable  to  understanding  it.  The  immediate 
connection,  or  context,  will  usually  embrace  from 
a  few  verses  to  a  few  chapters,  before  and  after  the 
text;  and  of  this  context  the  preacher  should  not 
only  have  a  general  knowledge,  but  should  make 
special  examination,  when  examining  his  text;  and 
we  must  resist  the  common  tendency  to  imagine  that 
this  context  begins  or  ends  with  the  chapter  in  which 
the  text  stands.  The  extent  to  which  such  study 
of  the  connection  should  be  carried,  will  of  course 
be  very  different  in  different  cases;  but  there  are 
scarcely  any  texts  with  reference  to  which  it  can 
with  propriety  be  entirely  neglected.  Wherever  it- 
is  practicable,  the  context,  as  well  as  the  text,  should 
by  all  means  be  read  in  the  original  languages,  or 
with  such  other  helps  as  are  recommended  under  the 
foregoing  rule.  In  a  great  number  of  cases  there  is 
an  interesting  verbal  connection  between  the  text 
and  some  sentence  a  little  before  or  after  it,  which 
is  obscured  by  the  necessary  conditions  of  translation, 
or  by  the  extreme  fondness  of  our  English  Version 
for  varying  the  translation  where  the  original  has 
the  same  word.  It  should  be  remarked  that  besides 
the  importance  of  studying  the  logical  connection 
in  order  to  a  thorough  understanding  of  the  text, 
an  exposition  of  the  context  often  forms  a  good,  and 
sometimes  a  necessary,  introduction  to  the  sermon. 

(3)  Study  the  text  i7i  its  larger  connections.  These 
remoter  relations  of  the  text  are  also  very  important 
to  its  correct  interpretation.  They  commonly  em- 
brace the  three  following  particulars,  {a)  Some- 
times the  logical  connection  will  really  be  the  entire 
book  to  which  the  text  belongs.  There  are  few  sen- 
tences in  Hebrews,  or  in  the  first  eleven  chapters  of 
Romans,  which  can  be  fully  understood  without  hav- 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  71 

ing  in  mind  the  entire  argument  of  the  Epistle.  Of 
course  this  is  not  so  strikingly  true  in  most  of  the 
books,  but  each  of  them  has  its  own  distinctive  con- 
tents, connection,  and  character.  Few  things  are  to 
be  so  earnestly  urged  upon  the  student  of  Scripture 
as  that  he  shall  habitually  study  its  books  with 
reference  to  their  whole  connection.^  Then  he  can 
minutely  examine  any  particular  text  with  a  correct 
knowledge  of  its  general  position  and  surroundings. 

{b)  Apart  from  the  logical  connection  of  dis- 
course in  which  a  text  is  found,  there  is  often 
important  aid  to  be  derived  from  general  historical 
knowledge.  In  the  narratives  which  make  up  the 
larger  part  of  Scripture  we  have  constant  need  of 
observing  facts  of  geography  which  would  throw 
light  on  the  text.  So  as  to  the  manners  and  cus- 
toms of  the  Jews,  and  other  nations  who  appear  in 
the  sacred  story.  Thus  much  is  obvious,  though 
these  helps  for  understanding  texts  are  seldom  used 
as  diligently  as  they  should  be.  But  there  is  also 
much  to  be  learned  by  taking  account  of  the  opinions 
and  state  of  mind  of  the  persons  addressed  in  a  text. 
We  need  to  remember  the  relations  between  the 
speaker  or  writer,  and  those  whom  he  has  specially 
in  view.  In  order  to  this,  we  must  not  merely 
know  the  previous  relations  of  the  parties,  as  in  the 
case  of  Paul's  Epistles,  but  must  endeavor  to  ascer- 
tain what  errors  or  evils  existed  among  them  which 
the  inspired  teacher  is  here  aiming  to  correct.  This 
can  often  be  gathered  from  the  book  itself.  No 
trouble  need  ever  have  been  felt  as  to  the  supposed 
contradiction  between  Paul  and  James  with  regard 
to  justification,  if  attention  had  been  paid  to  the 
theoretical  and  practical  errors  at  which  they  are 
respectively  aiming.      In  the   case  of  our  Lord's 

1  Compare  on  Expository  Preaching,  Part  II.  chap.  iii. 


72  THE   TEXT— INTERPRETATION. 

teachings,  much  may  be  learned  from  the  Gospels, 
and  also  from  the  Jewish  writings,  and  the  modern 
works  founded  on  them,  concerning  the  wrong 
notions  and  evil  practices  existing  among  the  Jews 
and  to  which  his  sayings  have  often  a  very  direct 
and  specific  reference.  With  respect,  for  example, 
to  divorce,  to  oaths,  to  the  Sabbath,  or  to  the  duty 
of  paying  tribute,  his  teachings  will  be  imper- 
fectly apprehended  unless  we  understand  the  prac- 
tical abuses  and  vehement  controversies  which 
existed  among  his  hearers  as  to  those  subjects.  On 
such  points  the  best  commentaries  give  some  infor- 
mation. Or,  to  take  a  different  kind  of  example, 
the  words:  "No  man  can  come  to  me,  except  the 
Father  which  hath  sent  me  draw  him  "  (John  vi.  44), 
were  not  spoken  as  a  mere  general,  didactic  utter- 
ance, much  less  were  they  addressed  to  humble  and 
anxious  inquirers,  but  were  aimed  at  an  utterly  un- 
spiritual  rabble,  who  were  following  him  not  from 
any  elevated  motives,  but  from  mere  fanatical  excite- 
ment, and  in  the  hope  of  continuing  to  be  fed  with- 
out working  for  it  —  who  called  themselves  his 
disciples,  and  talked  about  forcing  him  to  set  up 
an  earthly  kingdom.  The  recollection  of  all  this 
does  not  weaken  the  force  of  what  he  said,  but  it 
helps  us  to  appreciate  his  specific  aim  at  the  moment, 
and  gives  us  an  important  example  as  to  the  adapta- 
tion of  doctrine.  The  more  one  attends  to  the  sub- 
ject the  more  he  is  likely  to  become  convinced 
that  almost  everything  in  the  New  Testament,  as 
well  as  much  in  the  Old,  is  really  controversial  in 
its  specific  design,  and  that  we  must  constantly 
inquire  what  errors  or  evil  practices  are  aimed  at, 
in  order  to  appreciate  the  precise  bearing  given,  in 
any  text,  to  the  principles  it  may  contain,  and  the 
modifications  of  statement  which  may  be  necessary 


THE   TEXT  — INTERPRETATION.  73 

{mutatis  7nutandis)  in  turning  these  principles  towards 
new  applications. 

{c)  We  must  interpret  in  accordance  with,  and  not 
contrary  to,  the  general  teachings  of  Scripture.  ^  These 
teachings  are  harmonious,  and  can  be  combined  into 
a  symmetrical  whole.  If  a  passage  may  have  two 
senses,  owing  to  the  ambiguity  of  some  word  or 
construction,  to  the  doubt  whether  some  expression 
is  figurative,  etc.,  then  we  must  choose  one  which 
accords  with  what  the  Bible  in  general  plainly 
teaches,  rather  than  one  which  would  make  the 
Bible  contradict  itself.  It  is  a  gross  abuse  of  this 
principle  —  though  one  often  practised  —  to  force 
upon  a  passage  some  meaning  which  its  words  and 
constructions  do  not  grammatically  admit  of,  in 
order  that  it  may  give  the  sense  required  by  our 
system.  But  between  possible  grammatical  mean- 
ings we  are  compelled  to  choose  upon  some  prin- 
ciple, and  certainly  one  important  principle  to  be 
considered  is  that  the  teachings  of  Scripture  must 
be  consistent.  Where  the  grammatical  probabilities 
are  pretty  evenly  balanced,  a  comparatively  slight 
preference  in  the  respect  mentioned  must  turn  the 
scale;  and  even  a  much  less  probable  sense  —  pro- 
vided it  be  grammatically  possible,  and  sustained 
by  some  corresponding  usage  of  language  —  may  be 
preferred  to  a  more  probable  and  common  sense,  if 
the  former  would  perfectly  accord,  and  the  latter 
would  grossly  conflict,  with  the  acknowledged  gen- 
eral teachings  of  Scripture.  In  order  to  apply  this 
principle  with  propriety  and  safety,  it  is  manifestly 
necessary  that  we  should  bring  to  bear  no  narrow 
and   hasty  views    of    Scripture  teaching,    but    the 

1  The  phrase,  "  according  to  the  analogy  of  faith,"  commonly  used 
in  this  connection,  was  derived  from  a  misunderstanding  of  the 
Greek  in  Rom.  xii.  6,  and  ought  to  be  abandoned,  even  if  there  be  no 
technical  phrase  to  substitute. 


74  THE   TEXT —  INTERPRETATION. 

results  of  a  wide,  thoughtful,  and  devout  study  of 
Biblical  Theology. 

The  careful  examination  of  Scripture  "  references  '* 
in  studying  a  text  is  a  matter  of  great  importance. 
These  will  often  help  in  the  grammatical  part  of 
interpretation,  by  showing  how  the  same  words  and 
phrases  are  elsewhere  employed;  and  in  the  his- 
torical, by  showing  how  the  same  subject  was  pre- 
sented under  different  circumstances,  or  what  was 
the  peculiar  state  of  things  in  which  the  text  was 
uttered.  They  may  also  assist  us,  by  presenting 
parallel  or  analogous  Scripture  usage,  in  determin- 
ing whether  expressions  of  the  text  ought  to  be  taken 
as  figurative  or  as  allegorical ;  and  there  are  cases  in 
which  even  a  few  other  passages  will  so  far  set  forth 
the  general  teachings  of  Scripture  on  the  subject 
involved  in  the  text,  as  to  be  of  service  in  choosing 
among  the  possible  meanings  of  its  language.  They 
will  also  help  the  preacher  to  form  his  own  opinion 
as  to  the  meaning  of  his  text,  without  depending  too 
much  on  commentaries  and  other  helps.  Moreover, 
the  "  reference  "  passages  will  very  often  furnish  use- 
ful material  for  the  body  of  the  sermon,  suggesting 
to  us  new  aspects,  proofs,  illustrations,  or  applica- 
tions of  the  subject  treated.  The  young  preacher 
should  make  it  a  fixed  rule  to  consult  the  references 
to  his  text ;  and  many  men  and  women  have  become 
"mighty  in  the  Scriptures,"  by  the  diligent  use  of 
references  in  their  daily  reading.^ 

1  Moody's  New  Testament  is  quite  convenient,  as  it  prints  the 
reference  passages  in  full  on  the  same  page.  One  can  thus  readily 
note  those  which  strike  him  as  important,  and  then  hunt  them  up  to 
examine  their  connection.  Many  persons  become  discouraged  in  the 
use  of  references  by  the  fact  that  they  have  an  over-copious  and 
ill-chosen  collection.  The  Annotated  Paragraph  Bible  of  the  American 
Baptist  Publication  Society  is  in  this  respect,  as  in  others,  an  exceed- 
ingly good  edition. 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  75 


CHAPTER  III. 

SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED. 

5  I.  Doctrinal  Subjects.  I  §  3.  Historical  Subjects. 

2.  Subjects  of  Morality.  j     4.  Experimental  Subjects. 

WHETHER  the  subject  or  the  text  of  a  sermon 
is  first  chosen,  will  of  course  depend  upon 
circumstances.  In  considering  the  condition  of  the 
congregation,  or  looking  back  over  the  sermons  re- 
cently preached,  one  will  be  more  likely  to  decide 
upon  a  subject^  for  which  he  must  then  find  a  text. 
In  reading  the  Bible,  or  running  over  his  growing  list 
of  texts,  he  will  be  more  apt  to  light  upon  some  text 
which  interests  him,  and  from  which  he  will  proceed 
to  evolve  a  subject.  Each  of  these  plans  ought  to  be 
frequently  pursued ;  one  or  the  other  will  be  more 
frequently  adopted,  according  to  the  preacher's  turn 
of  mind.  It  has  been  thought  best  to  discuss  the 
text  first,  because  the  primary  conception  of  preach- 
ing is  to  bring  forth  the  teachings  of  some  passage  of 
Scripture.  But  the  points  to  be  insisted  on  are  these : 
when  the  subject  is  first  selected,  then  carefully  look 
for  a  text  which  will  fairly,  and  if  possible  exactly, 
present  that  subject;  if  the  text  comes  first,  then 
seek  to  work  out  from  it  some  definite  subject — not 
necessarily  expressed  in  a  single  proposition,  but 
really  one  subject.  Even  in  text-sermons  and  exposi- 
tory sermons,  as  we  shall  see  later,  it  is  important 
to  have  unity  of  subject. 

The  subjects  treated  in  the  pulpit  may  be  classi- 
fied into  doctrinal,  moral,  historical,  and  experimen- 


^6  SUBJECTS  — CLASSIFIED. 

tal.^  Any  such  classification  is  necessarily  imperfect,  as 
the  classes  will  in  certain  cases  overlap,  and  different 
persons  might  classify,  each  according  to  a  different 
basis.  But  the  habit  of  referring  every  subject  to  a 
class  will  be  found  useful,  as  contributing  to  unity 
and  consistency  of  treatment,  and  to  variety  of  topics ; 
and  the  discussion  of  these  classes  furnishes  occasion 
for  practical  suggestions,  upon  matters  of  no  little 
importance. 

§  I.      DOCTRINAL  SUBJECTS. 

The  phrase  "  doctrinal  sermon  "  is  constantly  used 
by  some  to  denote  sermons  on  points  of  denomina- 
tional peculiarity  or  controversy.  Such  a  limitation, 
implying  that  these  are  the  only  doctrines,  or  that  we 
cannot  discuss  doctrine  otherwise  than  polemically,  is 
a  really  grave  error,  and  should  be  carefully  avoided 
and  corrected. 

Doctrine,  /.  e,  teaching,  is  the  preacher's  chief  busi- 
ness.^ Truth  is  the  life-blood  of  piety,  without  which 
we  cannot  maintain  its  vitality  or  support  its  activity. 
And  to  teach  men  truth,  or  to  quicken  what  they 
already  know  into  freshness  and  power,  is  the  preach- 
er's great  means  of  doing  good.  The  facts  and  truths 
which  belong  to  the  Scripture  account  of  Sin,  Provi- 
dence, and  Redemption,  form  the  staple  of  all  Scrip- 
tural preaching.  But  these  truths  ought  not  simply 
to  have  place,  after  a  desultory  and  miscellaneous 
fashion,  in  our  preaching.     The  entire  body  of  Scrip- 

1  Comp.  the  classifications  of  Vinet,  p.  75;  Kidder,  p.  268. 

2  There  are  good  discussions  of  this  subject  in  Dabney's  "  Sacred 
Rhetoric,"  p.  5off ;  and  in  Phillips  Brooks'  Yale  Lectures,  p.  128,  129. 
Dabney  says,  "  It  was  a  golden  maxim  of  the  Protestant  fathers,  that 
'doctrines  must  be  preached  practically,  and  duties  doctrinally/ " 
Brooks  says,  "Preach  doctrine  —  preach  all  the  doctrine  that  you 
know,  and  learn  forever  more  and  more ;  but  preach  it  always,  not 
that  men  may  believe  it,  but  that  men  may  be  saved  by  believing  it." 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  7? 

ture  teaching  upon  any  particular  subject,  when  col- 
lected and  systematically  arranged,  has  come  to  be 
called  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  on  that  subject,  as  the 
doctrine  of  Sin,  of  Atonement,  of  Regeneration,  etc. ; 
and  in  this  sense  we  ought  to  preach  much  on  the 
doctrines  of  the  Bible.  We  all  regard  it  as  important 
that  the  preacher  should  himself  have  sound  views  of 
doctrine ;  is  it  not  also  important  that  he  should  lead 
his  congregation  to  have  just  views  }  In  our  restless 
nation  and  agitated  times,  in  these  days  of  somewhat 
bustling  religious  activity,  there  has  come  to  be  too 
little  of  real  doctrinal  preaching.  **The  day  was 
when  churches  were  much  more  concerned  than  we 
about  the  truths  conveyed,  and  much  less  about  the 
garb  of  the  truths.  Doctrine,  rather  than  speaking, 
was  what  drew  the  audience."  ^  To  a  certain  extent 
it  is  proper  that  we  should  conform  to  the  tastes  of 
the  age,  for  they  frequently  indicate  its  real  wants,  and 
always  affect  its  reception  of  truth ;  but  when  those 
tastes  are  manifestly  faulty,  we  should  earnestly 
endeavor  to  correct  them.  The  preacher  who  can 
make  doctrinal  truth  interesting  as  well  as  intelligible 
to  his  congregation,  and  gradually  bring  them  to 
a  good  acquaintance  with  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible, 
is  rendering  them  an  inestimable  service.  Doctri- 
nal preaching  is  not  necessarify  dry.^  In  fact  prop- 
erly presented  doctrine,  didactic  instruction,  may 
be  the  most  interesting  kind  of  preaching.  Men 
wish  to  know,  delight  in  knowing.  All  depends  on 
the  way  in  which  it  is  done.  The  dry  preacher  will 
make  all  subjects  dry ;  dull  anecdotes,  and  tame  ex- 
hortations have  sometimes  been  heard  of. 

1  Alexander,  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  p.  50;  he  repeatedly  and 
earnestly  insists  on  doctrinal  preaching.  See  pp.  10-12,  42,  43,  51, 
234-236,  249-252. 

2  Comp.  Dabney,  p.  54.  See  also  Christ's  Trumpet  Call  to  the 
Ministry,  by  D.  S.  Gregory,  in  many  places,  especially  p.  iioff. 


78  SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED. 

And  let  us  preach  especially  on  the  great  doctrines. 
True,  they  are  familiar,  but  sermons  upon  them  need 
not  be  commonplace.  The  sunHght  is  as  fresh  every 
morning  as  when  it  shone  upon  our  first  parents  in 
their  Paradise ;  young  love  is  still  as  sweet,  and  pa- 
rental grief  as  heart-rending,  as  was  theirs.  And  so 
the  great  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  to  him  who  has 
eyes  to  see  and  a  heart  to  feel  them,  are  forever  new. 
Our  task  is,  loving  these  truths  ourselves,  to  make 
others  love  them.  Many  a  preacher  could  tell,  how 
in  the  early  months  or  years  of  his  untutored  minis- 
try, he  was  sometimes  driven,  from  sheer  lack  of  a 
novel  topic,  to  fall  back  upon  Repentance,  Regenera- 
tion, or  the  like,  and  make  what  he  felt  to  be  a  poor 
sermon;  and  how,  long  afterwards,  he  heard  of  fruit 
from  those  sermons  rather  than  from  others  which  he 
at  the  time  considered  much  more  striking  and  im- 
pressive.^ Of  course  one  should  not  make  a  hobby 
of  a  particular  doctrine,  as  some  men  do  with  the 
doctrine  of  Election,  or  of  Baptism ;  and  some  others 
with  Perfection,  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit,  the  Second 
Coming  of  our  Lord,  and  the  like.  In  regard  to 
preaching  unpopular  doctrines,  such  as  Election  be- 
fore some  audiences,  Future  Punishment,  Depravity, 
and  even  Missions,  before  others ;  one  comprehen- 
sive rule  may  be  given.  Be  faithful  and  fearless,  but 
skilful  and  affectionate. 

While,  however,  we  ought  to  preach  much  upon 
the  great  doctrines,  it  is  not  often  advisable,  espe- 
cially for  a  settled  pastor,  to  embrace  the  whole  of 
such  a  doctrine  in  a  single  sermon.  This  would  con- 
tain the  mere  generalities  of  the  subject,  and  be  very 
difficult  to  the  hearer,  or,  more  frequently,  quite 
commonplace.  It  is  a  common  delusion  of  inex- 
perienced speakers  or  writers,  to  think  that  they 
1  Comp.  on  Familiar  Texts,  above,  chap.  i.  §  3. 


SUBJECTS  — CLASSIFIED.  79 

had  best  take  a  very  broad  subject,  so  as  to  be  sure  of 
finding  enough  to  say.  But  to  choose  some  one 
aspect  of  a  great  subject  is  usually  far  better,  as 
there  is  thus  much  better  opportunity  for  the  speaker 
to  work  out  something  fresh,  and  much  better  pros- 
pect of  making  the  hearers  take  a  lively  interest  in 
the  subject  as  a  whole.  Alexander,  writing  to  a  son 
at  college,  says :  "  The  more  special  the  subject,  the 
more  you  will  find  to  say  on  it.  Boys  think  just  the 
reverse.  They  write  of  Virtue,  Honor,  Liberty,  etc. ; 
it  would  be  easier  to  write  on  the  pleasures  of  Virtue, 
the  Honor  of  Knighthood,  or  the  difference  between 
true  and  false  Liberty  —  which  are  more  special. 
Take  it  as  a  general  rule,  the  more  you  narrow  the 
subject,  the  more  thoughts  you  will  have.  And  for 
this  there  is  a  philosophical  reason,  which  I  wish  you 
to  observe.  In  acquiring  knowledge,  the  mind  pro- 
ceeds from  particulars  to  generals.  Thus  Newton 
proceeded  from  the  falling  of  an  apple  to  the  gen- 
eral principle  of  gravity.  A  great  many  particular 
observations  were  to  be  made  on  animals,  before  a 
naturalist  could  lay  down  the  general  law,  that  all 
creatures  with  cleft  hoofs  and  horns  are  graminivor- 
ous. .  .  .  This  process  is  called  generalization.  It  is 
one  of  the  last  to  be  developed.  Hence  it  requires 
vast  knowledge  and  a  mature  mind  to  treat  a  general 
subject,  such  as  Virtue,  or  Honor,  and  it  is  much 
better  to  begin  with  particular  instances."^  And 
this  applies  not  merely  to  the  preacher's  power  of 
treatment,  but  to  the  hearer's  power  of  comprehen- 
sion. When  he  becomes  fully  able  to  discuss  large 
subjects  in  a  single  discourse,  the  great  mass  of  his 
hearers  will  still  be  unable  to  follow  him,  unless  the 
discourse  be  so  long  as  to  include  copious  details. 
And  besides  all  this,  the  settled  pastor  cannot  often 

*  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  p.  512. 


80  SUBJECTS  — CLASSIFIED. 

afford  to  consume  so  much  material  in  a  single  ser- 
mon. The  exceptional  cases,  as  a  series  of  sermons 
on  several  great  doctrines,  the  existence  of  special 
interest  in  some  one  doctrine,  etc.,  will  of  course  be 
treated  as  exceptions. 

The  specific  aspects  of  a  great  doctrine  may  some- 
times be  chosen  according  to  the  natural  divisions  of 
the  subject  itself.  For  example,  Repentance :  its  na- 
ture, necessity,  season,  evidences,  relation  to  faith ;  or 
Regeneration  :  its  nature,  necessity,  author,  relation  to 
baptism,  faith,  and  the  like.  In  this  matter,  and  in 
all  that  pertains  to  preaching  upon  doctrinal  subjects, 
we  must  carefully  bear  in  mind  the  distinction  be- 
tween a  theological  treatise  or  lecture,  and  a  popular 
sermon.  The  scientific  analysis  and  elaborate  logic 
of  the  one  is  seldom  appropriate  to  the  other.  The 
parts  of  a  subject  which  require  most  attention,  and 
excite  most  interest,  on  the  part  of  a  systematic 
student,  may  be  least  suitable  to  preaching,  and  vice 
versa.  The  knowledge  presupposed  by  the  theo- 
logical teacher,  cannot  usually  be  taken  for  granted 
as  existing  in  a  congregation.  Young  ministers  often 
help  to  make  doctrinal  subjects  unpopular,  by  the 
fact  that  their  sermons  too  closely  resemble  the 
treatises  they  have  been  studying,  or  the  lectures 
they  have  heard.  We  must  assume  a  different  point 
of  view;  must  consider  which  aspects  of  a  doctrine 
will  awaken  interest  In  the  popular  mind,  and  at  the 
same  time  help  to  give  just  views  of  the  whole.  Be- 
sides the  important  differences  between  the  merely 
didactic  and  the  oratorical  mode  of  treatment,  there 
is  here  a  previous  difference  as  to  the  choice  of  sub- 
jects and  parts  of  subjects  to  be  treated. 

Or,  instead  of  selecting  according  to  the  logical 
divisions  of  the  doctrine,  we  may  take  the  aspect  of 
it  presented  by  some  one  text.    Thus  on  Repentance, 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  8 1 

one  might  preach  upon  its  nature,  its  results,  the 
obligations  to  it,  etc.,  hunting  up  a  text  for  each ;  or, 
he  might  begin  by  selecting  among  the  texts  which 
treat  of  repentance.  For  example,  Mark  vi.  12, 
"  And  they  went  out  and  preached  that  men  should 
repent,"  would  suggest  a  general  view  of  repentance, 
or  an  inquiry  into  its  obligation;  Acts  v.  31,  "Him 
hath  God  exalted  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  to  give 
repentance  to  Israel,  and  forgiveness  of  sins,"  pre- 
sents repentance  as  a  gift  of  Christ;  Acts  xx.  21, 
"Testifying  .  .  .  repentance  toward  God,  and  faith 
toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  brings  up  the  relation 
between  repentance  and  faith;  and  Matt.  iii.  ii,  "I 
indeed  baptize  you  with  water  unto  repentance,"  that 
between  repentance  and  baptism.  Various  distinct 
and  impressive  motives  to  repentance  are  exhibited 
by  Rom.  ii.  4,  *'  The  goodness  of  God  leadeth  thee  to 
repentance;"  Acts  iii.  16,  "Repent  .  .  .  that  your 
sins  may  be  blotted  out;  "  Luke  xiii.  3,  "  Except  ye 
repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish ;  "  Acts  xvii.  30, 
31,  "  God  .  .  .  now  commandeth  all  men  everywhere 
to  repent,  because  he  hath  appointed  a  day  in  which 
he  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness;  "  Luke  xv. 
10,  "  There  is  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of 
God  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth."  And  Matt.  iii. 
8,  **  Bring  forth  therefore  fruits  meet  for  repentance," 
would  lead  one  to  speak  of  the  appropriate  effects  of 
repentance.^  A  person  well  acquainted  with  the 
whole  doctrine  of  Repentance  could  treat  the  view 
presented  by  any  one  of  these  texts  as  a  part  of  the 
whole,  so  as  gradually  to  give  a  complete  knowledge 
of  the  entire  subject,  while  each  sermon  would  have 
the  freshness  and  force  belonging  to  a  specific  topic. 
Besides  the  properly  doctrinal,  i.  e.  didactic,  there 
are  apologetical  and  polemical  subjects. 

1  Comp.  Ripley,  Sac.  Rhet.,  p.  32. 
6 


82  SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED. 

Apologetics}  that  is,  the  Evidences  of  Christianity 
and  its  defence  against  assailants,  is  a  class  of  subjects 
not  often  requiring,  in  our  ordinary  preaching,  to  be 
formally  treated.  Robert  Hall  ^  in  a  striking  passage 
justly  criticises  the  too  great  readiness  of  some 
preachers  to  discuss  this  class  of  subjects.  Such 
preachers  often  do  harm  by  suggesting  difficulties 
which  their  arguments  do  not  remove.  He  also  calls 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  argument  for  Christianity 
is  a  cumulative  one,  and  cannot  be  properly  presented 
in  so  brief  a  discussion  as  a  sermon. 

But  informally,  incidentally,  we  may  all  make  very 
frequent  and  profitable  use  of  Christian  Evidences. 
Without  at  all  treating  the  question  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity  as  an  open  one,  and  without  undertaking 
any  full  and  regular  discussion  of  its  claims,  or  refu- 
tation of  objections  to  it,  we  may  introduce  into 
ordinary  sermons  some  subordinate  division,  or  pass- 
ing remark,  that  will  vividly  exhibit  one  of  the  evi- 
dences, or  strikingly  refute  some  particular  objection. 
This  course  meets  any  rising  doubts  in  one  mind  or 
another,  and  precisely  suits  the  mental  wants  and 
habits  of  most  men,  and  is  thus  the  fairest  way  of 
bringing  the  subject  before  them.  Even  if  one  sees 
cause  for  an  expressly  apologetical  sermon  or  series 
of  sermons,  he  had  better  select  some  part  of  the 
great  subject,  and  barely  allude  to,  or  rapidly  touch, 
the  others.  Whatever  matters  are  distinctly  brought 
forward,  ought  to  be  thoroughly  discussed.  Let  us 
beware  how  we  merely  mention  some  striking  form  of 
error,  or  plausible  objection  to  truth,  without  meet- 
ing it  very  squarely,  if  not  at  all  points.  Every  one 
has  observed,  what  Mr.  Hall  intimates,  that  the  error 

1  The  word  "  apology "  originally  signified  a  defence,  without  any 
acknowledgment  of  wrong. 

2  Works,  Vol.  II.  p.  299. 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  83 

often  remains  in  the  mind,  while  the  imperfect  refuta- 
tion is  forgotten ;  and  the  reason  for  this  is  not  far  to 
seek.  Errors  often  find  their  chief  power  in  the  fact 
that  they  consist  of  truth  torn  away  from  its  connec- 
tion, and  held  up  in  an  excessive  prominence,  or 
without  the  limitation  and  modification  which  would 
be  given  by  its  related  truths.  A  fragment  of  truth 
thus  held  up  may  make  its  delusive  impression  in  a 
single  moment.  The  apologist  must  carefully  replace 
the  truth,  and  bring  the  hearers  to  look  closely  at  all 
the  surrounding  truths,  and  consider  their  relation  to 
that  which  has  been  dislocated.  But  this  is  often  a 
work  of  time,  requiring  wider  knowledge  than  the 
audience  possess  or  he  can  readily  impart,  and  more 
reflection  than  the  heedless  many  are  willing  to  be- 
stow. It  is  unfair  to  the  truth  if  we  neglect  this  fact, 
and  expect  a  brief  statement  of  some  novel  and 
seductive  error  to  be  sufficiently  met  by  an  equally 
brief  reply. 

The  internal  and  experimental  evidences  may  be 
very  readily  preached  upon  with  advantage.  The 
beautiful  harmony  of  the  sacred  books,  with  all  their 
rich  diversity,  the  effects  of  Christianity  upon  civil- 
ization, the  adaptation  of  the  gospel  to  the  wants  of 
an  awakened  conscience,  the  believer's  testimony  on 
the  ground  of  experience,  the  blessed  results  of  piety, 
and  the  powerful  example  of  the  truly  pious,  are 
topics  which  may  be  widely  and  freely  used. 

Polemics,  or  controversy  with  other  professed 
Christians,  presents  subjects  which  demand  faith- 
ful and  careful  handling.  The  spurious  charity, 
now  so  much  talked  of,  which  requires  that  we  shall 
not  assail  error  in  our  fellow-Christians,  the  indiffer- 
ence to  truth  so  widely  prevailing,  which  prates  of 
the  "good  in  everything,"  and  urges  that  a  man's 
belief  is  of  little  importance  if  he  is  intellectual,  or 


84  SUBJECTS  — CLASSIFIED. 

amiable,  or  moral  and  devout,  these  make  some  men 
unwilling  to  preach  upon  polemical  topics,  especially 
to  discuss  the  errors  of  other  evangelical  denomina- 
tions. The  natural  love  of  conflict,  which  even  in 
preachers  is  sometimes  so  strong,  the  lively  interest 
which  the  ungodly  will  take  in  a  fight  among  Chris- 
tians, the  hearty  support  and  laudation  which  a 
man's  own  party  will  give  him,  often  precisely  in 
proportion  as  he  flatters  their  self-conceit  and  un- 
fairly assails  their  opponents, —  such  causes  as  these 
contribute  to  make  another  class  of  men  excessively 
fond  of  controversy.  And  then  the  two  classes 
really  stimulate  and  encourage  each  other.  The 
former  being  greatly  disgusted  at  what  they  reckon 
bad  taste  and  a  wrong  spirit,  are  thus  all  the  more 
disposed  to  shrink  from  such  topics ;  and  the  latter, 
being  fired  by  what  appears  to  them  cowardice  or 
worldly  policy,  are  all  the  more  bitter  against  the 
common  foe,  and  inclined  to  assail  their  friends 
besides.  In  this  way  two  tendencies  often  arise  in 
a  denomination,  each  toward  a  very  hurtful  extreme. 
Is  there  not  a  golden  mean }  It  would  seem  to  be  a 
just  principle,  that  a  preacher  should  never  go  out 
of  his  way  to  find  controversial  matter,  nor  go  out  of 
his  way  to  avoid  it.  He  who  continually  shrinks 
from  conflict  should  stir  himself  up  to  faithfulness; 
he  who  is  by  nature  belligerent,  should  cultivate 
forbearance  and  courtesy.  When  the  text  or  topic 
naturally  leads  us  to  remark  upon  some  matter  of 
controversy,  we  should  not,  save  in  exceptional 
cases,  avoid  it,  because  esteemed  Christians  are 
present  who  differ  with  us  on  that  point.  We 
should  of  course  be  mainly  occupied  with  the 
advocacy  of  positive  truth ;  but  the  idea  that  a  man 
can  always  "talk  about  what  he  himself  believes, 
and  let  other  people's  opinions  alone,"  is  imprac* 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  85 

ticable,  even  if  it  were  not  improper.  In  many 
cases  we  cannot  clearly  define  truth,  save  by  con- 
trasting it  with  error.  And  since  errors  held  and 
taught  by  good  men  are  only  the  more  likely  to  be 
hurtful  to  others,  we  are  surely  not  less  bound  to 
refute  them  in  such  cases  than  when  advocated  by 
bad  men.  Paul  employs  terms  of  terrible  severity, 
as  his  Master  had  done,  in  speaking  of  some  who 
taught  utterly  ruinous  error  and  from  bad  motives.  ^ 
Paul  also  withstood  to  the  face,  before  all  the 
brethren,  his  beloved  but  now  erring  fellow-apostle, 
using  against  him  hard  arguments,  but  soft  words.  ^ 
Afterwards,  in  speaking  of  the  matter,  he  charges 
Peter  with  dissimulation,  a  charge  justifiable  because 
he  knew  with  certainty  that  it  was  true.  We,  who 
are  so  liable  to  err  in  judging,  ought  to  be  very  slow 
to  impugn  the  motives  of  those  whom  we  believe  to 
be  lovers  of  Jesus.  No  doubt  Satan  rejoices,  as  we 
know  that  wicked  men  do,  to  see  Christians  adding 
abuse  to  argument.  While  faithfully  and  earnestly 
opposing  error,  even  as  held  by  Christian  brethren, 
let  us  avoid  needlessly  wounding  the  cause  of  our 
common  Christianity. 

It  is  not  unfrequently  the  wisest  policy  as  regards 
certain  forms  of  error,  to  leave  them  unnoticed.  In 
the  excitement  about  Romanism,  which  its  boldness 
and  boasting  have  recently  awakened  in  our  country, 
there  is  reason  to  fear  that  many  will  fall  to  preach- 
ing against  the  Romanists  where  they  are  little 
known,  and  thus  only  help  to  bring  them  into  notice. 
While  well  assured  that  their  grievous  errors  can  be 
refuted,  we  ought  to  remember  that  those  errors  are 
subtle  and  to  some  minds  seductive,  and  that  here, 

1  Phil.  iii.  2;  Gal.  vi.  12;  i  Tim.  iv.  I,  2;  2  Tim.  iv.  14.  Comp 
Matt,  xxiii.  33 ;  3  John,  10. 

2  GaLii.  11-21. 


S6  SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED. 

just  as  in  the  case  of  infidel  theories  and  objections, 
slight  and  hasty  refutation  is  often  worse  than  none. 
So,  too,  there  are  some  minor  religious  denomina- 
tions, whose  vital  breath  is  controversy,  and  who 
will  most  surely  die  when  they  are  most  severely 
let  alone. 

§  2.    SUBJECTS  OF  MORALITY. 

We  sometimes  hear  pious  men  speak  with  severe 
reprobation  of  "  moral  sermons. "  It  has  often  been 
the  case,  for  example,  in  the  Church  of  England 
during  the  eighteenth  century,  and  among  American 
Unitarians  at  the  present  time,  that  morality  would 
be  preached  with  little  or  no  reference  to  the  Atone- 
ment and  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  a  mere  morality 
taking  the  place  of  the  real  gospel.  This  has  estab- 
lished an  association,  in  many  minds,  between  moral 
discourses  and  opposition  to  the  "  doctrines  of  grace. " 
But  our  Lord's  personal  teachings  consist  mainly  of 
morality;  and  Paul  and  Peter,  while  unfolding  and 
dwelling  on  the  salvation  which  is  by  grace  through 
faith,  have  not  merely  urged  in  general  a  holy  life, 
but  have  given  many  precepts  with  reference  to  par- 
ticular, and  sometimes  minor  duties.  No  one  among 
us  will  question  that  we  ought  constantly  to  exhort 
believers  to  show  their  faith  by  their  works,  and  to 
be  holy  in  all  their  deportment,  seeing  that  theirs 
is  a  holy  God.  But  there  is  in  many  quarters  a 
reluctance,  for  the  reason  just  mentioned,  to  preach 
much  upon  particular  questions  of  moral  duty.  A 
preacher  of  the  gospel  certainly  ought  not  to  preach 
morality  apart  from  the  gospel.^  He  may  present 
other  than  strictly  evangelical   motives,  but  these 

1  Comp.  Phillips  Brooks,  Yale  Lect.,  pp.  136-140;  and  Dabney's 
Sac.  Rhet.,  p.  243  ff.,  where  the  relation  of  the  imagination  to  moral 
suasion  is  well  brought  out. 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  87 

must  be  manifestly  subordinate  to  the  great  motive 
of  grateful  love  to  Christ,  and  consecration  to  his 
service.  We  should  exhort  men  to  keep  the  law  of 
God,  for  thus  they  may  be  brought  to  Christ ;  but  to 
incite  unregenerate  people  to  a  so-called  moral  life, 
on  the  ground  merely  of  interest,  of  regard  for  the 
well-being  of  society,  and  even  of  love  for  their 
children,  etc.,  is  for  the  preacher  unsuitable,  save  in 
very  peculiar  cases.  He  must  first  call  men,  as  an 
ambassador  for  Christ,  to  be  reconciled  to  God,  must 
insist  upon  the  indispensable  need  of  regeneration 
through  the  Holy  Spirit.  Then,  speaking  to  those 
who  are  looked  upon  as  regenerate,  he  must,  with 
all  his  might,  urge  them  to  true  and  high  morality, 
not  only  on  all  other  grounds,  but  as  a  solemn  duty 
to  God  their  Saviour.  The  only  question  is,  how 
far  he  ought  to  go  into  details.  As  above  intimated, 
our  Lord  and  his  apostles  did  go  into  details  very 
freely.  And  our  preaching  often  suffers  from  the 
fact  that,  while  inculcating  Christian  morality  in 
general,  we  do  not  bring  the  matter  home  to  the 
hearts  and  daily  lives  of  our  brethren,  do  not  so 
delineate  their  practical  experiences,  and  indicate 
their  duty  in  practical  questions,  as  to  make  them 
feel  stimulated  and  encouraged  in  the  actual  pursuit 
of  holiness.  1  At  the  same  time,  these  questions  are 
innumerable  and  often  complicated  and  difficult,  and 
we  are  compelled  to  select. 

Now  certain  limitations,  as  to  the  preaching  of  par- 
ticular morality,  appear  to  be  important,  (i)  We 
must  not  make  formal  discussion  of  very  minute 
topics.  "  Represent  to  yourself,  for  example,  ser- 
mons on  neatness,  on  politeness,  etc.     Some  topics 

1  There  are  good  observations  on  this  subject  in  Robert  Hall's 
Works,  Vol.  II.  p.  290  fE.  See  also  Hervey's  Christian  Rhetoric, 
pp.  144,  149. 


S^  SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED. 

of  this  sort,  doubtless,  may  be  approached,  but  it 
must  be  done  incidentally;  they  should  never  fur- 
nish the  subject  of  a  sermon.  Particular  morality 
is  not  to  be  excluded,  but  such  details  of  it  may  have 
their  place  in  more  general  matters,  or  in  historical 
subjects. "  ^  It  is  one  of  the  advantages  of  expository 
preaching,  whether  doctrinal  or  historical,  that  it 
gives  occasion  for  many  useful  incidental  remarks 
upon  minor  morals,  for  which  we  might  never  find 
a  place  in  formal  subject-sermons.  (2)  A  second 
limitation  is,  that  the  inculcation  of  morality  must 
not  consume  the  greater  part  of  our  time,  for  it  is 
our  chief  business  to  entreat  men  to  be  reconciled 
to  God,  and  the  "doctrines  of  grace"  are  the  great 
means  of  making  believers  "  careful  to  maintain  good 
works.  "2  (3)  And  it  is  a  third  limitation,  that 
we  must  not  so  enter  into  particular  questions  of 
morality,  as  to  make  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
merely  tributary  to  secular  interests,  and  appar- 
ently to  sink  the  preacher  in  the  partisan. 

Political  preaching  has  long  been  a  subject  of 
vehement  discussion  in  America,  and  presents  ques- 
tions of  great  importance.  In  Europe,  the  almost 
universal  connection  of  Church  and  State  has  embar- 
rassed the  subject  with  complications  from  which  we 
are  comparatively  free.  Government  here  does  not 
interfere  with  religion,  to  support  some,  or  to  perse- 
cute others ;  and  we  have  in  this  respect  no  occa- 
sion to  discuss  governmental  affairs.  Still,  political 
measures  often  involve,  and  are  sometimes  almost 
identical  with,  great  questions  of  right  and  wrong.  ^ 
The  notion  that  political  decisions  are  to  be  regu- 
larly made  on  grounds  of  mere  expediency  is  dis- 

1  Vinet,  Horn.  p.  83. 

2  See  Titus,  iii.  3-8,  an  important  passage  on  this  subject. 
8  Comp.  Phillips  Brooks,  Yale  Lect.,  p.  141. 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  89 

honoring  to  the  religion  which  many  of  us  profess, 
and  would  ultimately  ruin  any  nation.  That  truly 
pious  men  shall  carry  their  religion  into  politics, 
shall  keep  religious  principle  uppermost  in  all  polit- 
ical questions  which  have  a  moral  character,  is  an 
unquestionable  and  solemn  duty.  Of  course  it  is 
right  that  the  preacher  should  urge  them  to  do  so ; 
and  should  urge  it  with  special  earnestness  in  times 
of  great  political  excitement,  when  good  men  are 
often  carried  away.  Now  we  have  observed  above 
that  in  other  matters  it  is  well  not  merely  to  insist 
upon  morality  in  general,  but  to  go  somewhat  into 
details,  thus  illustrating  general  truth,  and  offering 
hints  for  practical  guidance.  Why,  then,  it  may 
be  asked,  shall  we  not  do  likewise  in  reference  to 
political  matters,  where  it  is  often  as  difficult  as  it 
is  important  for  a  good  man  to  decide  upon  his  duty } 
Why  shall  not  the  preacher  go  somewhat  into  details 
here?  The  great  difficulty  is,  that  it  is  almost  im- 
possible for  a  preacher  to  do  this  without  taking 
sides.  In  a  country  where  party  feeling  runs  so  high 
as  in  ours,  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  too,  being 
still  ungodly,  to  take  sides  at  all,  in  public  dis- 
course, will  cause  the  preacher  to  be  at  once  swept 
away  by  the  rushing  tide.  He  ceases  to  sustain  an 
impartial  relation  to  all  the  people  over  whom  he  is 
shepherd,  and  becomes,  in  a  matter  which  with  many 
is  more  important  than  religion,  the  friend  of  some, 
the  foe  of  others.  The  irreligious,  and  many  of  the 
brethren,  forget  all  about  the  religious  aims  of  his 
preaching,  in  the  one  absorbing  inquiry  how  much 
he  will  help  or  harm  their  party.  Thus  has  many  a 
good  man,  who  was  honestly  striving  to  bring  poli- 
tics under  the  control  of  religious  principle,  been 
brought,  before  he  knew  it,  into  the  position  of  a 
recognized  political  partisan.     Upon  perceiving  such 


90  SUBJECTS  — CLASSIFIED. 

a  result,  some  preachers  at  once  draw  back,  wiser 
from  their  experience;  but  others,  proud  of  con- 
sistency, resolved  to  conquer  opposition,  or  unable 
to  see  just  what  their  mistake  is,  and  how  to  correct 
it,  persevere,  with  deplorable  results.  The  associa- 
tion which  once  connected  them  in  the  popular  mind 
with  unworldly  feelings  and  eternal  interests,  is 
broken.  Their  power  of  turning  men's  eyes  away 
from  the  things  which  are  seen  to  the  things  which 
are  not  seen,  is  seriously  diminished.  They  become 
comparatively  unable  to  accomplish  the  great  object 
which  a  good  man  in  the  ministry  must  cherish,  the 
object  of  saving  souls.  Besides,  the  temporal  bene- 
fits of  Christianity  are  greatest  just  in  proportion  as 
there  is  most  of  true  spirituality.  Preachers  do  men 
most  good  as  to  this  world  in  proportion  as  they 
bring  them  to  care  most  for  the  world  to  come.  In 
losing  this  higher  power,  then,  one  has  likewise 
actually  lost  the  most  effectual  means  of  advancing 
those  lower  ends  at  which  he  was  aiming.  While 
striving  to  bring  some  of  the  motive  power  of  his 
engine  to  bear  upon  one  subordinate  work,  he  has 
left  the  boiler  to  burst,  and  now  can  do  neither  the 
greater  nor  the  less.^ 

Many  persons  insist  that  the  minister  must  have 
nothing  to  do  with  politics,  not  even  to  the  extent 
of  voting,  or  of  the  formation  and  private  expression 
of  political  opinions.  Some  take  this  ground  from 
false  notions  of  the  "clergyman's"  position;  but  a 
Christian  minister  is  no  more  a  priest  than  a  Chris- 
tian layman,  and  nothing  is  intrinsically  wrong  to 
the  one  which  is  not  to  the  other.  Some  urge  as 
follows:  "A  minister  may  well  be  absolved  from 
preaching,  or   even   forming   opinions   on   politics. 

1  Comp.  Vinet,  Horn.  pp.  71-74,  and  86,  87 ;  and  Shedd,  Horn, 
pp.  248-249,  for  similar  views. 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  QI 

He  has  the  common  right  of  all  citizens  so  to  do ; 
but  his  proper  work  is  enough  for  all  his  time  and 
powers.  The  great  themes  of  religious  truth  are 
enough  to  occupy  more  time  than  he  can  get. "  ^  But 
there  is  too  much  disposition  among  scholarly  and 
refined  men  to  leave  voting  to  the  masses  and  the 
demagogues.  A  well-informed  man,  in  this  coun- 
try, cannot  avoid  the  formation  of  opinions  upon 
politics;  and  by  voluntary  ignorance  of  current 
affairs,  more  is  lost  by  the  working  pastor  than 
gained.  The  minister  ought  to  have  his  opinions, 
and  ought  to  vote ;  and  he  may  state  his  views  in 
private  conversation,  with  more  or  less  reserve  ac- 
cording to  circumstances.  He  should  in  the  pulpit 
urge  and  conjure  his  Christian  hearers  to  be  con- 
trolled in  their  political  action  by  Christian  prin- 
ciple. To  go  into  details,  and  suggest  how  they 
ought  to  vote  in  a  particular  issue,  is  lawful,  but  in 
general  highly  inexpedient;  the  little  good  done  will 
almost  certainly  be  overbalanced  by  the  harm  that 
in  various  ways  must  result.  If  a  preacher  ever 
takes  such  a  course  at  all,  it  should  be  in  very 
peculiar  and  extraordinary  cases,  and  even  then  his 
discussion  should  be  brief,  well-considered,  and  tem- 
perate, and  gladly  abandoned  for  other  themes.  If 
ever  the  great  majority  of  controlling  politicians 
should  be  truly  pious  men,  it  might  be  not  inexpe- 
dient for  the  preacher  to  offer  suggestions  upon  cur- 
rent political  questions  —  hut  t/ien  it  would  be  hardly 
worth  while. 

There  are  other  very  important  and  difficult  topics 
of  particular  morality,  such  as  Temperance,  and  the 
question  of  Amusements ;  but  a  few  remarks  upon 
these  must  suffice.  The  preacher  should  by  all 
means  avoid  ultraism.     Some  things  not  sinful  in 

1  Alexander,  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  p.  47. 


9^:  SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED. 

themselves,  it  is  yet  best  to  abstain  from  because 
they  so  readily  and  widely  lead  to  sin.  But  here 
there  is  at  once  seen  to  be  room  for  difference  of 
opinion.  Not  everything  should  be  avoided  which 
is  often  grossly  abused;  and  however  clear  it  may 
seem  to  us  that  some  particular  thing  should  be 
avoided,  another  man  may  perhaps  judge  otherwise. 
Even  though  vehement  in  condemnation,  we  must 
not  be  indiscriminate.  And  if  in  the  natural  desire 
to  take  strong  ground  we  represent  the  use  of  intoxi- 
cating beverages,  dancing,  and  games  of  amusement, 
as  in  themselves  sinful,  and  under  all  circumstances 
wrong,  we  assume  an  extreme  and  false  position, 
which  must  eventually  weaken  our  cause.  If  dis- 
criminating and  considerate  views,  leading  to  a 
regard  for  their  example  and  influence,  and  a  recog* 
nition  of  possible  danger  to  themselves  and  their 
families,  will  not  restrain  men  in  these  respects, 
then  extravagance  and  violence,  even  if  controlling 
a  few,  will  in  general  but  repel  and  provoke,  stimu- 
lating the  wrong  practices  in  question,  and  driving 
many  away  from  the  gospel.  The  world  is  full  of 
great  and  dreadful  evils,  which  may  well  excite  both 
grief  and  indignation,  and  which  call  loudly  for  cor- 
rection ;  but  one  evil  is  not  to  be  cured  by  another. 
Again,  we  must  not  merely  condemn  the  wrong,  but 
exhort  to  the  right.  Preaching  on  these  subjects  too 
often  consists  merely  in  vehement  assaults.  Much 
more  may  be  accomplished  if  we  also  encourage  the 
right-minded  to  a  proper  course,  and  affectionately 
point  out  to  them  the  beginnings  of  evil  against 
which  they  must  guard.  The  latter  course  may  not 
afford  so  much  occasion  for  impassioned  and  boister- 
ous "  eloquence,"  but  it  will  hardly  be  on  that  account 
the  less  useful.  Severe  censure  is  sometimes  neces- 
sary, but  encouragement  to  do   right  is  always  in 


SUBJECTS  — CLASSIFIED.  93 

place,  and  often  more  potent.  "Reprove,  rebuke, 
exhort,  with  all  long-suffering  and  teaching."  ^ 
And  finally,  it  is  usually  better  to  treat  these  subjects 
in  the  course  of  our  ordinary  preachings  than  to  make 
set  sermons  upon  them.  These  may  draw  a  crowd, 
if  that  is  all,  but  the  formal  discussion  invites  criti- 
cism and  awakens  opposition,  and  even  if  really 
convincing,  finds  the  persons  most  concerned  partic- 
ularly hard  to  convince.  Arguments  and  appeals 
from  time  to  time,  as  suggested  by  the  subject  or 
the  occasion,  will  make  no  unfavorable  impression, 
and  steady  perseverance  will  gradually  call  back  and 
win  over  all  whom  it  is  possible  to  influence.  Only, 
let  not  the  preacher  make  any  particular  vicious 
practice  or  social  usage  his  hobby;  for  then  folks 
will  but  smile  at  all  he  can  say. 

§  3.    HISTORICAL   SUBJECTS. 

It  would  be  unnecessary  to  urge  that  history  is 
attractive  for  all  who  read,  and  full  of  varied  instruc- 
tion for  all  who  read  thoughtfully.  And  the  most 
instructive  history  is  that  of  the  Bible.  A  leading 
writer  2  on  the  philosophy  of  history  has  declared 
that  no  such  philosophy  can  be  constructed,  save  by 
the  recognition  of  a  providential  purpose  which  per- 
vades all  events  and  links  them  into  unity.  In  the 
Bible  the  designs  of  Providence  are  not  left  to  be 
judged  of  by  our  sagacity,  but  are  often  clearly 
revealed,  so  as  to  show  us  the  meaning  of  things 
obscure,  and  the  real  co-working  of  things  appar- 
ently antagonistic.  Thus  the  Bible  histories  act 
like  the  problems  worked  out  in  a  treatise  of  Algebra, 
teaching  us  how  to  approach  the  other  problems  pre- 
sented by  the  general  history  of  the  world.     The 

1  2  Tim.  iv.  2.  2  SchlegeL 


94  SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED. 

oft-quoted  saying  of  an  ancient  writer  that  "  history 
is  philosophy  teaching  by  example,"  applies  nowhere 
so  truly  as  to  the  inspired  records,  which  are  God 
himself  teaching  by  example. 

Moreover,  nothing  so  interests  us  all  as  a  person. 
No  inanimate  object,  or  general  proposition,  will 
make  much  impression  upon  mankind  at  large,  unless 
it  is  personified  or  impersonated,  or  invested  with 
some  personal  interest.  The  poet,  delighting  in 
nature,  instinctively  feels  as  if  communing  with  a 
person.  Even  so  abstract  a  thing  as  a  system  of 
philosophy,  is  usually  remembered  in  connection 
with  a  personal  teacher.  A  benevolent  enterprise 
seldom  takes  much  hold  on  the  popular  mind,  unless 
it  is  associated  with  some  honored  man,  its  embodi- 
ment and  representative.  A  celebrated  lecturer^  on 
history  once  stated  in  conversation  that  he  found  it 
difficult  to  interest  a  popular  audience,  if  he  pre- 
sented merely  historical  events,  periods,  or  lessons; 
these  must  be  associated  with  some  person.  Now 
the  Bible  not  only  consists  very  largely  of  history, 
but  the  greater  part  of  its  history  is  really  biography, 
the  story  of  individual  lives,  exhibiting  the  most 
various  and  instructive  examples  of  character,  both 
good  and  bad,  of  both  sexes,  and  of  every  condition 
in  life.  And  this  great  historical  picture  groups  all 
its  figures  around  one  Person,  to  whom  some  look 
forward  with  longing  and  others  look  back  with  love, 
and  whose  very  enemies  unwillingly  stand  connected 
with  him. 

All  this  being  true,  it  would  seem  that  historical 
subjects  of  preaching  ought  to  be  much  more  fre- 
quently employed  than  is  actually  the  case.  Several 
reasons  for  the  comparative  neglect  of  them  may  be 
suggested.     The  greater  part  of  devout  ministers 

1  John  Lord. 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  95 

unwisely  overlook  the  human  elements  in  Scripture 
history.  If  not  carried  away  by  the  passion  for  find- 
ing "types  of  Christ,"  so  as  to  care  little  for  the 
persons  and  events  that  cannot  possibly  be  thus 
regarded,  they  still  fail  to  study  these  histories  as 
history.  They  do  not  trace  the  progress  of  events 
in  the  history  of  Israel  as  in  that  of  any  other  nation, 
allowing  for  the  occasional  miraculous  interferences, 
and  searching  amid  the  mingled  web  of  Israel's 
affairs  for  the  golden  thread  of  Providential  purpose. 
They  do  not  analyze  the  character  and  motives  of 
inspired  men,  as  "men  of  like  passions"  with  our- 
selves, men  who  struggled,  as  we  have  to  do,  with 
their  own  infirmities  and  the  thronging  temptations 
of  life.  They  shrink  from  contemplating  the  gen- 
uine but  sinless  humanity  of  the  glorious  central 
Person,  which  makes  him  so  real  and  so  unspeakably 
valuable  an  example  for  us,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
is  our  divine  Redeemer.  Another  reason  is,  few 
ministers  gain  that  minute  and  familiar  acquaintance 
with  Scripture  geography,  with  the  manners  and 
customs  of  the  Jews  and  related  nations,  and  with 
the  secular  history  connected  with  Biblical  events, 
which  would  enable  them  to  realize  the  scenes  and 
reproduce  them  with  vivid  coloring,  so  as  to  kindle 
the  imagination  of  their  hearers;  nor  do  they  culti- 
vate, as  all  preachers  should  do,  the  power  of  descrip- 
tion.-^ On  the  other  hand,  some  make  historical 
subjects  simply  the  occasion  for  displaying  their 
descriptive  powers,  or  exhibiting  their  archaeological 
learning,  without  teaching  any  useful  lessons,  and 
thus  establish  an  association  in  the  minds  of  many 
hearers  between  historical  sermons  and  mere  "  word- 
painting.  "    And  further,  preachers  who  know  or  sup- 

1  See  on  Imagination,  Part  III.  chap.  v. ;  and  comp.  on  Expository 
Preaching,  Part  II.  chap.  iii.   Also  on  Description,  chap.  vi.  §  2,  below. 


96  SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED. 

pose  themselves  to  have  little  talent  for  description 
are  apt  to  forget  that  one  of  the  chief  benefits  of  his- 
torical preaching  is  derived  from  the  analysis  of 
character  and  motive.  We  all  find  it  so  hard  to 
understand  our  fellow-men,  or  ourselves,  that  it  is  a 
great  blessing  to  have  in  some  Scripture  examples 
the  veil  taken  off,  and  the  real  motives  and  true 
character  of  men  laid  bare  to  our  inspection ;  and  in 
many  other  cases,  to  have  suggestive  and  reliable 
indications  to  provoke  and  encourage  inquiry.  Liv- 
ing instances  could  be  mentioned  of  very  able  men, 
who  had  rarely  attempted  historical  subjects,  be- 
cause conscious  of  possessing  little  talent  for  descrip- 
tion ;  but  when  the  simple  suggestion  was  made  that 
they  could  bring  to  bear  their  analytical  powers  upon 
the  character  of  some  Scripture  personage  or  the 
motives  of  the  actors  in  some  Scripture  scene,  they 
soon  found  themselves  much  interested  in  historical 
discourses,  and  found,  too,  that  they  could  throw  in 
excellent  touches  of  description  by  the  way. 

The  history  of  Christianity  outside  of  the  Bible, 
from  the  earliest  times  to  our  own,  furnishes  much 
instructive  and  interesting  material  for  preaching; 
but  to  draw  the  subject  of  a  sermon  from  this  source 
would  be  unwise.  A  sermon  upon  the  life  and  char- 
acter of  Augustine,  Calvin,  Wesley,  Fuller,  Hall, 
or  Judson  might  be  really  useful,  but  the  tendency 
would  be  towards  one  of  the  abuses  of  Romanism : 
substituting  panegyrics  of  the  saints  for  Biblical 
preaching.  Yet  sometimes  week-night  lectures  might 
be  devoted  to  the  delineation  of  great  and  instruc- 
tive Christian  characters,  particularly  notable  mis- 
sionaries. 

§  4.    EXPERIMENTAL   SUBJECTS. 

Historical  subjects  manifestly  include  doctrinal 
and   moral  elements;    and  yet   those  subjects  have 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  97 

really  a  distinct  character.  In  like  manner  experi- 
mental subjects  partake  of  the  doctrinal,  the  moral, 
and  the  historical,  but  are  so  distinct,  and  of  such 
importance,  as  to  deserve  separate  classification  and 
notice.  The  actual  experiences  of  men  in  receiving 
the  gospel  and  living  according  to  it  ought  to  be 
delineated ;  always  under  the  guidance  of  Scripture 
doctrine,  precept,  and  examples,  but  still  deline- 
ated as  we  find  them  to  be.  Such  matters  will  enter 
largely  into  the  substance  of  many  discourses  whose 
subject  is  doctrinal,  moral,  or  historical;  but  the 
chief  phases  of  religious  experience  deserve  to  be 
somewhat  frequently  made  the  subject  of  special  and 
careful  discussion.  Material  for  this  purpose  is  to 
be  drawn  from  the  Bible,  from  treatises  bearing  on 
the  subject,  and  biographies,  from  the  preacher's 
own  experience,  and  with  particular  advantage  from 
frequent  conversation  with  richly  experienced  Chris- 
tians, making  allowance  for  their  peculiarities  of 
temperament  and  theological  opinion,  and  for  their 
degrees  of  culture.  The  preacher,  like  the  physi- 
cian, ought  in  addition  to  what  is  learned  from  books, 
to  "study  cases,"  as  they  arise  in  his  practical 
labors. 

It  would  surely  be  very  useful  sometimes  to  depict 
the  life  of  an  irreligious  man,  as  it  is  now  going  for- 
ward on  week-days  and  Sundays,  in  business  and  in 
society  and  at  home;  to  do  this  without  exaggerat- 
ing in  order  to  make  a  striking  picture,  without 
ignoring  the  man's  better  impulses,  good  intentions, 
kindly  affections,  etc.,  — to  make  him  out,  so  far  as 
possible,  just  what  he  is.  After  pondering  the  mat- 
ter and  asking  a  good  many  thoughtful  questions  of 
some  intelligent  brethren  as  to  their  personal  recol- 
lections, a  preacher  might  be  able,  modestly  and 
with  good  success,  to  treat  such  a  subject.     It  is  not 

7 


98  SUBJECTS  — CLASSIFIED. 

uncommon  to  describe  Conviction  of  Sin,  the  vari- 
ous methods  in  which  it  is  wrought,  and  the  causes 
by  which  it  is  often  weakened  and  brought  to  noth- 
ing. So  with  Conversion.  Accounts  of  conversion 
in  persons  differing  in  temperament,  religious  edu- 
cation, etc.,  carefully  analyzed,  so  as  to  distinguish 
the  general  from  the  peculiar,  are  always  interest- 
ing, and  may  be  made  exceedingly  profitable.  The 
early  Baptist  preachers  who  travelled  from  New 
England  to  Georgia,  preaching  depravity,  atone- 
ment, and  regeneration  to  an  ignorant  and  gainsaying 
people,  often  made  a  great  impression  and  gave  most 
important  instruction,  by  telling  their  own  experi- 
ence. And  then  the  varieties  of  experience  in  the 
Christian  life  —  what  subjects  they  afford  for  preach- 
ing! The  Christian's  Conflicts;  Backsliding  and 
Progress,  Despondency  and  Assurance;  Sickness 
and  Bereavement,  —  these  are  often  discussed  in 
every  evangelical  pulpit.  ^ 

To  speak  at  all  of  our  own  experience  is  a  task  to 
be  performed  with  special  prayer  for  humility  and 
delicacy,  lest  we  injure  our  own  character,  and  repel 
hearers  of  fastidious  tastes.  Many  shrink  too  readily 
from  this  duty;  but  not  a  few  go  to  the  other  ex- 
treme, and  speak  too  much,  and  not  wisely,  of 
their  own  experiences,  and  this  is  the  worse  evil  of 
the  two.  Let  us  in  this  matter,  as  in  so  many 
others  where  discretion  and  good  taste  are  involved, 
earnestly  strive  to  find  the  proper  middle  course. 
The  apostle  Paul  has  spoken  frequently,  and  some- 
times at  great  length,  of  his  conversion,  the  trials, 
conflicts,  and  consolations  of  his  subsequent  life,  and 
of  his  present  purposes  and  hopes;  and  the  Psalms 
consist  almost  entirely  of  recorded  experiences.     In 

1  See  some  good  remarks  in  Wayland's  Ministry  of  the  Gospel, 
pp.  86-96. 


SUBJECTS  —  CLASSIFIED.  99 

speaking  of  our  own  experiences,  we  ought  to  be  care- 
ful not  to  tell  the  same  thing  over  too  often,  nor 
indeed  should  we  speak  too  often  of  ourselves  at 
all.  We  should  never  do  so  out  of  mere  egotism, 
but  with  careful  selection  of  such  things  as  will 
be  really  appropriate  to  the  subject  and  helpful  to 
the  hearers.  One  thing,  however,  is  to  be  specially 
guarded  against,  in  all  attempts  at  depicting  relig- 
ious experience,  and  especially  in  allusions  to  our 
own;  we  are  very  apt  to  imagine,  or  at  least  to 
speak  as  if  we  imagined,  that  all  experiences  will 
be  like  ours.  Thus  Chrysostom,  always  moral,  and 
inclined  to  be  devout  from  a  boy,  taught  that  we 
get  all  the  grace  that  we  are  willing  to  receive; 
while  Augustine,  very  wicked  and  powerfully  con- 
verted, preached  sovereign  and  irresistible  grace.  A 
preacher  or  other  Christian  whose  conversion  was 
consciously  sudden  will  almost  always  speak  of  con- 
version as  sudden ;  one  in  whom  the  work  was  grad- 
ual and  slow,  will  give  a  corresponding  description. 
So  with  the  hopeful  and  the  desponding,  the  fully 
assured  and  the  often  doubting,  and  the  like.  We 
are  prone  to  forget  that  Christian  experience,  like 
the  human  countenance,  will  in  no  two  persons  be 
precisely  alike,  and  often  presents  many  and  striking 
differences,  though  the  great  characteristic  features 
are  always  the  same. 


100    SERMONS   FOR  PARTICULAR  OCCASIONS. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

SERMONS  FOR  PARTICULAR  OCCASIONS  AND 
CLASSES. 


§  I.  Funeral  Sermons. 

2.  Academic  and  Anniversary 

Sermons. 

3.  Revival  Sermons. 


§  4.  Sermons  to  Children. 
5.  Sermons  for  other  Special 
Classes. 


IT  is  convenient  to  offer  at  this  point  a  few  sugges- 
tions as  to  sermons  on  particular  occasions,  or 
addressed  to  particular  classes.  For  it  will  often 
happen  that  in  the  choice  and  treatment  of  his  sub- 
jects the  preacher  must  be  decisively  influenced  by 
the  demands  of  some  special  occasion,  or  by  the 
peculiar  character  of  the  audience,  or  a  part  of  the 
audience,  which  he  is  to  address.  It  will  be  desir- 
able, therefore,  briefly  to  discuss  in  this  connection 
some  matters  pertaining  to  the  style  and  manage- 
ment of  these  special  sermons,  though  the  general 
subjects  of  Materials,  Arrangement,  and  Style  will 
have  full  consideration  in  their  appropriate  places. 

§  I.    FUNERAL  SERMONS. 

In  some  places,  especially  though  not  exclusively 
in  the  cities,  the  current  demand  for  brevity  in  relig- 
ious services,  with  perhaps  other  causes  also,  has 
induced  some  decline  in  the  practice  of  preaching 
set  funeral  sermons.  People  often  prefer  a  simple 
religious  service,  with  sometimes  a  brief  memorial 
address,  or  several  addresses  in  cases  of  special 
interest.      Yet  there   is   still   in  many  quarters  a 


SERMONS   FOR  PARTICULAR  OCCASlONS.V^XQI' 

powerful  sentiment  sustained  by  long  usage  in  favor 
of  special  funeral  sermons ;  and  the  preacher  should 
know  how  to  meet  this  demand.  Besides,  much  that 
needs  to  be  said  about  funeral  sermons  will  apply  as 
well  to  the  short  personal  address  as  to  the  more 
elaborate  and  formal  discourse. 

Those  who  clearly  see  and  vehemently  condemn 
the  faults  which  disfigure  many  funeral  discourses, 
are  very  apt,  when  themselves  bereaved,  to  find  their 
hearts  demanding  such  a  service,  and  will  not  unfre- 
quently  prefer  the  very  preacher  whose  course  had 
often  seemed  to  them  most  objectionable.  Sorrow- 
ing and  softened,  we  feel  then  a  special  need  of  God's 
mercy  and  grace,  and  the  preacher  should  gladly 
seize  the  opportunity  to  recommend  the  gospel  of 
consolation,  and  to  impress  the  need  of  personal 
piety,  that  we  may  be  ready  to  live  and  ready  to  die. 
And  not  only  will  some  habitual  hearers  be  then 
better  prepared  to  receive  the  word,  but  persons  will 
be  present  who  seldom  attend  the  place  of  worship. 
It  is  highly  important,  therefore,  that  funeral  ser- 
mons should  clearly  point  out  the  way  of  life,  and 
tenderly  invite  to  the  Saviour.  Moreover,  in  the 
freshness  of  our  grief  we  instinctively  desire  to 
utter,  or  at  least  to  hear,  some  eulogy  upon  the 
departed;  and  all  nations  have  had  some  method,  by 
speech  or  song  or  broken  lament,  of  indulging  the 
desire.  That  among  us  Christian  ministers  are 
expected  to  perform  this  function,  while  it  some- 
times places  them  in  a  difficult  position,  is  yet  a 
sign  of  their  influence,  and  a  means  of  using  that 
influence  to  good  purpose.  Yet  the  preacher  must 
remember  that  he  is  not  a  mere  eulogist  of  the  dead, 
but  only  adds  this  task  to  his  work  of  preaching  the 
gospel.  Accordingly,  his  utterances  as  to  the  de- 
parted must  be  only  a  part  of  what  he  says,  usually 


lOi     SERMONS    FOR   PARTICULAR   OCCASIONS. 

but  a  small  part,  and  must  be  scrupulously  true, 
though  not  necessarily  all  the  truth,  for  this  would 
often  be  superfluous  and  sometimes  painful.  No 
promptings  of  his  own  sorrow,  nor  regard  for  the 
feelings  of  others,  must  lead  him  to  the  exaggerated 
praises  which  are  so  natural.  When  the  departed 
was  a  Christian,  he  should  speak  chiefly  of  that  fact, 
bringing  out  anything  in  the  character  or  course  of 
life  which  he  knows,  and  others  will  recognize,  to 
be  worthy  of  imitation.  When  the  departed  was 
not  a  Christian,  he  may  sometimes  lawfully  speak 
a  few  soothing  words  as  to  anything  which  specially 
endeared  the  deceased  to  his  friends.  But  this  must 
be  done,  if  done  at  all,  without  exaggeration,  and  it 
is  a  solemn  duty  to  avoid  saying  one  word  which 
suggests  that  these  good  points  of  character  afford 
any  ground  of  hope  for  eternity.  Some  preachers 
will  on  such  occasions  give  the  lie  to  all  their  ordi- 
nary preaching,  by  leaving  room  to  suppose  that 
without  being  born  again  a  very  excellent  person 
may  perhaps  see  the  kingdom  of  God.  "  He  did  not 
make  any  profession  of  religion,  but  he  was  this  or 
that,  and  we  leave  him  to  the  mercy  of  God."  Or, 
"he  had  never  professed  to  be  a  Christian,  but  he 
was  perfectly  willing  to  die  "  —  as  if  that  proved  any- 
thing. Nay,  if  the  deceased  did  not  give  evidence  of 
being  regenerate,  a  believer  in  Christ,  let  us  say 
nothing  about  his  eternal  future,  nothing  whatever. 
Any  such  suggestions  encourage  the  ignorant  or 
unthinking  in  false  hopes,  and  to  right-minded 
mourners  are  but  a  mockery  of  their  woe.  Pains 
should  be  taken  not  to  make  much  of  death-bed  con- 
versions, which  are  proverbially  uncertain,  and  the 
hope  of  which,  as  a  last  resort,  is  so  often  taken  by 
the  living  as  an  encouragement  to  delay.  In  gen- 
eral, the  preacher  ought  to  exercise  reserve  in  what 


SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR    OCCASIONS.     103 

he  says  of  the  departed;  and  in  the  case  of  wicked 
people,  it  is  frequently  in  the  best  taste,  and  shows 
the  most  real  kindness,  to  say  nothing.  Young 
preachers  sometimes  allow  themselves,  in  their  first 
sermons  of  this  sort,  to  indulge  in  copious  eulogies 
with  no  great  foundation,  and  then  afterwards  seem 
compelled  to  do  likewise  in  cases  where  they  feel  it 
to  be  a  great  trial,  and  know  that  they  are  liable  to 
do  serious  harm  to  the  cause  of  truth.  It  will  save 
much  embarrassment  to  begin  right. 

The  services  on  such  occasions,  and  especially 
the  sermon,  are  often  made  too  long.  "  A  prevail- 
ing fault  of  funeral  discourses  is  the  occupation  of 
too  much  time  with  generalities  or  truths  that  have 
no  special  application  to  the  existing  circumstances. 
It  is  far  better  to  confine  such  discourses  to  narrower 
limits,  and  to  that  particular  range  of  thought  which 
all  will  recognize  to  be  pertinent."  ^  The  tendency 
to  ostentatious  parade  in  funerals,  which  is  in  some 
communities  a  great  evil,  ought  in  every  judicious 
way  to  be  discouraged. 

§  2.    ACADEMIC   AND  ANNIVERSARY  SERMONS. 

Sermons  at  institutions  of  learning,  or  on  occa- 
sions of  literary  interest,  are  often  managed  in  a 
very  mistaken  fashion.  The  preacher  imagines  that 
he  must  not  give  a  regular  gospel  sermon,  but  must 
betake  himself  to  matters  highly  erudite  or  meta- 
physical. It  is  really  desirable  on  such  occasions 
to  preach  upon  eminently  evangelical  topics,  the 
very  heart  of  the  gospel.  Science  and  erudition  are 
the  every-day  work  of  these  professors  and  students ; 
from  you,  to-day,  they  had  much  rather  hear  some- 
thing else.     Even  those  who  care  nothing  for  religion 

1  Kidder's  Horn.  p.  280,  where  there  are  other  good  remarks. 


I04    SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR   OCCASIONS. 

will  feel,  as  persons  of  taste,  that  it  is  congruous, 
becoming,  for  a  preacher  to  preach  the  gospel;  while 
the  truly  pious,  yearning  over  their  unconverted 
associates,  will  long  to  have  the  preacher  urge  sav- 
ing truth  upon  them  in  the  most  practical  way,  and 
with  whole-souled  earnestness.  Of  course  the  ser- 
mon should  have  point,  force,  freshness;  and  the 
associations  of  the  occasion  may  sometimes  suggest 
slight  peculiarities  of  allusion,  illustration,  and 
style;  but  it  ought  to  be  a  sermon  full  of  Christ, 
full  of  prayerful  zeal  to  save  souls.  Ah !  as  one 
looks  over  those  hundreds  of  intelligent  young  faces, 
and  his  heart  goes  out  to  them  in  sympathy  and  love, 
—  as  he  thinks  what  a  power  they  will  be  in  the 
world  for  good  or  for  evil,  and  how  they  are  all  there 
present  before  God,  to  hear  his  message,  he  must 
surely  feel  an  unwonted  emotion,  a  solemn  sense  of 
privilege  and  responsibility;  and  if  never  before, 
there  ought  to  be  true  of  him  then,  those  words  of 
Baxter, 

"  I  preached  as  never  sure  to  preach  again, 
And  as  a  dying  man  to  dying  men." 

Preachers  are  often  called  on  to  deliver  sermons 
at  various  kinds  of  anniversaries.  In  general,  such 
sermons  are  never  so  acceptable  to  devout  hearts, 
and  never  so  helpful  to  the  objects  sought  on  these 
occasions,  as  when  they  are  filled  with  the  very 
essence  of  the  gospel.  For  example,  the  "annual 
sermon "  before  an  Association,  Convention,  or 
other  religious  body,  should  not  be  soaring,  philo- 
sophic, ambitious,  but  should  seek  by  earnest,  direct, 
and  moving  presentation  of  gospel  truths  and  motives 
to  arouse  a  deep  religious  feeling.  He  is  a  wise 
man  who  prayerfully  avoids  making  a  show  on  such 
occasions,  but  sincerely  endeavors  to  bring  his 
brethren  with  himself  nearer  to  his  Master.     Even 


SERMONS   FOR  PARTICULAR  OCCASIONS.     105 

where  some  particular  doctrine  or  topic,  historical, 
memorial,  or  other,  is  assigned  him,  the  preacher 
should  strive  so  to  present  his  theme  as  to  awaken 
and  encourage  devout  sentiments. 

And  the  same  principles  hold  in  regard  to  other 
anniversary  sermons.  It  sometimes  occurs  that  a 
Society,  religious  or  benevolent,  celebrates  its  anni- 
versary by  having  a  sermon  preached.  Besides  the 
sermon,  it  may  be  remarked  in  passing,  the  minister 
should  look  well  to  the  other  services  of  the  occa- 
sion and  see  that  they  are  not  only  suitable  and 
impressive,  but  solemn  and  spiritually  profitable. 
Occasions  of  this  kind  often  give  the  preacher  an  op- 
portunity to  reach  people  who  seldom  go  to  church, 
or  to  his  church,  and  whom  he  may  never  meet  again. 
Well  will  it  be  for  him  and  for  them  if  by  skilful 
and  deeply  earnest  handling  of  his  theme  and  his  op- 
portunity he  may  be  able  to  win  and  edify  the  souls 
of  his  hearers.  The  preacher  cannot  afford  to  be 
merely  the  head  man  of  the  parade  at  such  times; 
he  must  be  the  devout  and  inspiring  soul  of  the 
occasion. 

§  3.    REVIVAL  SERMONS. 

The  phrase  "  revival  sermons  "  is  not  altogether  a 
felicitous  or  suitable  one,  and  yet  is  readily  under- 
stood to  mean  those  sermons  which  are  especially 
appropriate  in  revival  meetings  where  the  principal 
object  is  to  arouse  those  who  are  not  Christians, 
and  win  converts.  Now  it  is  obvious  that  in  their 
general  conduct  and  treatment  discourses  for  these 
occasions  should  not  materially  differ  from  other 
sermons;  and  yet  in  the  choice  of  topics  for  suc- 
cessive presentation,  and  in  many  of  the  details  of 
treatment,  there  are  some  points  of  special  interest 
which  make  these  discourses  somewhat  peculiar,  and 


106     SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR  OCCASIONS- 

warrant  particular  discussion.  Sometimes  the  pas- 
tor may  have  to  conduct  his  own  revival  services, 
and  this  is  an  exceedingly  desirable  thing  for  him 
to  do.  At  other  times  he  may  be  called  on  to  aid  a 
brother  pastor  in  a  series  of  meetings,  preaching 
always  once,  and  very  frequently  twice  a  day.  Thus 
the  selection,  order,  and  treatment  of  his  subjects 
are  matters  of  moment  and  sometimes  of  difficulty. 
So  varied  are  these  occasions  of  revival,  and  so 
different  their  demands,  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  make  rules  to  cover  all  cases;  and  yet  a  few 
practical  suggestions  as  to  the  general  character 
and  management  of  revival  sermons  may  be  useful, 
especially  to  the  inexperienced  preacher. 

(i)  Tkey  should  be  short.  The  people  are  wearied 
by  coming  often  to  successive  meetings;  and  there 
are  other  things  besides  the  sermon  that  need  to  be 
interspersed,  such  as  the  appeals,  the  songs,  the 
prayers;  so  that  it  is  a  mistake  to  make  the  sermon 
as  long  even  as  it  usually  is.  Many  otherwise  suc- 
cessful revivalists  have  erred  in  this  point. 

(2)  They  should  be  greatly  varied  in  character  and 
contents.  Monotony  is  injurious  to  the  best  effects. 
In  the  congregations  which  usually  gather  for  these 
special  services  there  is  every  variety  of  people  with 
every  variety  of  sentiment,  and  at  no  time  is  the 
preacher  more  solemnly  bound  to  be  all  things  to 
all  men  that  he  may  by  all  means  save  some.  This 
variety  of  adaptation  will  be  necessary  both  in  the 
selection  and  the  treatment  of  the  topics  of  dis- 
course. Sometimes  the  sermon  must  edify,  com- 
fort, and  encourage  the  saints  and  faithful  workers; 
at  others  it  must  rebuke  the  lax  and  cold  church 
members  whose  worldliness  and  inconsistencies  are 
a  hindrance  to  the  success  of  the  gospel;  now  it 
must  proclaim  in  no  uncertain  voice  the  fearfulness 


SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR   OCCASIONS.      10/ 

of  the  Lord's  judgment  upon  sin;  and  again,  it  must 
gently  win  and  urge  the  hesitating  by  presenting  the 
inestimable  love  and  mercy  of  God.  With  some 
the  preacher  must  argue,  to  some  he  must  dogma- 
tize, others  he  must  touch  with  tender  anecdote  and 
pathetic  appeal;  some  he  must  rebuke  with  sharp 
attack  upon  the  conscience,  others  he  must  encour- 
age, with  patient  persuasion,  to  venture  now  upon  the 
Lord's  promises.  Yet  with  all  this  variety  another 
thing  is  important  in  these  revival  discourses. 

(3)  They  should  generally  follow  some  law  of  se- 
quence. What  that  order  shall  be  will  depend  upon 
such  a  variety  of  circumstances  that  it  would  be 
impossible  to  make  any  general  rule  cover  all  cases ; 
the  exceptions  would  be  likely  to  be  more  important 
than  the  rule.  Not  even  the  same  order  of  topics 
should  be  pursued  in  different  places,  nor  in  the 
same  place  at  different  times.  Yet  partly  for  the 
sake  of  the  preacher's  own  mind  in  its  logical,  and 
therefore  more  efficient  working,  and  partly  for  the 
sake  of  continuity  of  effect  upon  the  minds  of  others, 
some  orderly  arrangement  in  the  series  of  discourses 
is  usually  desirable  in  revival  preaching.  A  general 
sequence  like  the  following  is  often  found  useful : 
First  address  the  church,  seeking  to  arouse  a  more 
active  spiritual  life,  to  recall  the  worldly  and  quicken 
the  pious,  awakening  in  all  the  spirit  of  prayer  and 
of  intense  concern  for  the  salvation  of  others ;  then 
present  for  several  meetings  the  terrors  of  the  law, 
searching  the  conscience,  arousing  concern  for  sin, 
the  fear  of  judgment,  and  the  consequent  imperative 
need  of  a  Saviour;  then  set  forth  the  mercy  and  love 
of  God  as  displayed  in  the  gospel  of  his  Son,  the 
certainty  and  completeness  of  the  divine  forgiveness 
of  sin  upon  repentance  and  faith;  and  finally  urge 
immediate  decision  and  acceptance  of  the  gospel 


I08    SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR   OCCASIONS. 

terms,  with  public  confession  of  Christ.  Whatever 
order  may  be  observed,  none  of  these  topics  can  be 
safely  omitted  from  a  series  of  revival  sermons. 
Several  of  them  may  be  combined  in  the  same  dis- 
course, they  may  be  often  repeated  in  various  con- 
nections, and  very  often  the  earnest  presentation  of 
one  will  incidentally  and  powerfully  enforce  another. 
Grave  mistakes  are  often  made  by  insisting  too  ex- 
clusively upon  one  or  another  of  these  parts  of  the 
gospel  message.  Especially  is  this  true  in  regard 
to  the  last  —  the  duty  of  immediate  confession  of 
Christ.  Some  take  this  up  at  once,  and  insist  upon 
it  all  through  the  meetings  to  the  slighting  of  the 
topics  which  naturally  and  logically  precede  it;  and 
it  is  to  be  feared  that  many  superficial  persons  are 
thus  induced  to  make  a  public  profession  of  religion 
who  have  had  no  true  conviction  of  sin,  no  real  sense 
of  their  utter  need  of  the  Saviour,  and  consequently 
no  sound  Scriptural  conversion.  This  brings  us  to 
notice  another  requisite  in  revival  sermons :  — 

(4)  They  should  pre-eminently  exemplify  a  sound, 
thorough-going  ajtd  complete  gospel  preaching.  There 
is  much  so-called  revival  preaching  which  sadly  lacks 
this  character.  Mere  clap-trap  and  sensationalism, 
tirades  of  cheap  wit  and  vulgar  denunciation,  extreme 
and  one-sided  statements,  half-truths  and  specious 
errors  —  all  these  infect  as  a  deadly  poison  a  large 
proportion  of  that  which  is  called  evangelistic  preach- 
ing. An  earnest  and  loving,  but  at  the  same  time 
faithful  and  strong,  presentation  of  pure  Bible  truth 
on  the  great  matters  of  Sin,  Judgment,  Atonement, 
Salvation,  Regeneration,  Grace,  Repentance,  and 
Faith,  is  the  distinctive  and  emphatic  need  of  the 
revival  preaching  of  our  age.^ 

1  On  revival  preaching  comp.  Etter,  The  Preacher  and  his  Sermon, 
p.  236  ff . ;  Gregory,  Christ's  Trumpet  Call  to  the  Ministry,  pp.  26S- 
297;  Phelps,  Theory  of  Preaching,  p.  287  ff.,  Men  and  Bocks,  p.  11  fil 


SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR   CLASSES.        lOQ 
§  4.    SERMONS  TO   CHILDREN. 

Work  for  the  children  and  young  people  is  one  of 
the  characteristic  movements  of  our  age;  and  it  is 
well  for  us  to  give  particular  attention  to  the  sub- 
ject of  preaching  to  children.^  Suggestions  on  this 
subject  will  also  bear  upon  the  less  formal  addresses 
to  children  in  the  Sunday  School,  on  anniversary 
and  festal  occasions,  and  the  like.  There  is  apt  to 
be  too  broad  a  difference  in  style  and  tone  between 
sermons  to  children  and  speeches  to  them.  If  the 
sermons  could  be  a  little  more  familiar,  and  the 
speeches  a  good  deal  more  serious,  than  is  commonly 
the  case,  then  suggestions  for  the  one  could,  without 
any  appearance  of  incongruity,  apply  to  the  other. 

Every  one  notices  how  few  persons  succeed  de- 
cidedly well  in  speaking  to  children.  But  many 
preachers  possess  greater  power  in  this  respect  than 
they  have  ever  exercised,  because  they  have  never 
devoted  to  the  subject  much  either  of  reflection, 
observation,  or  heedful  practice.  Examples  may  be 
found  of  men  who  for  years  considered  that  they 
had  no  talent  for  speaking  to  children,  and  whose 
attempts  were  always  comparative  failures,  and  yet 
who  afterwards  became  very  popular  and  useful  in 
this  important  department  of  preaching.  There  are 
others,  however,  who  have  had  great  success  with 
sermons  to  children.  In  modern  times  the  first  to  be 
noticed  is  the  celebrated  French  Catholic  preacher, 
Massillon,  who  addressed  to  Louis  XV.,  when  a 
child  of  nine  years,  a  series  of  sermons  which  have 
obtained  the  name  of  "  Le  Petit  Careme,"  The  Little 
Lent.     Dr.  Thomas  Arnold,  the  famous  teacher  of 

1  For  a  full  and  very  good  discussion  of  this  matter,  see  Etter, 
The  Preacher  and  his  Sermon,  p.  256  ff.  Comp.  also  Otto,  Evan. 
Prak.  Theol.  s.  141  £E. 


no       SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR  CLASSES. 

Rugby  School  in  England,  preached  to  his  boys 
with  good  effect.  In  later  times  many  English 
preachers  have  given  special  and  successful  atten- 
tion to  this  work.  Here  in  America  not  a  few  of 
our  pastors  and  evangelists  have  done  good  service 
in  this  department.  Worthy  of  special  mention  is 
Dr.  Richard  Newton  (Episcopalian)  of  Philadelphia, 
whose  volumes  of  sermons  to  children  are  probably 
the  best  of  their  kind,  and  should  be  read  by  all  who 
wish  to  succeed  well  in  preaching  to  children.^ 

It  has  been  frequently  remarked  that  in  the  young 
child  imagination  is  predominant;  in  the  child  of 
ten  or  twelve  years,  memory;  and  not  until  they 
are  nearly  grown,  do  the  powers  of  abstraction  and 
reasoning  become  active.  It  is  to  the  two  former 
classes  that  we  commonly  speak,  whatever  is  aimed 
at  older  people  being  also  addressed  to  the  children. 
We  see  at  once  that  it  is  necessary  to  avoid  abstract 
terms,  and  formal  processes  of  reasoning.  Many 
preachers  find  this  difficult  because  they  are  too 
much  accustomed,  even  for  the  wants  of  the  ordinary 


1  It  may  be  well  to  mention  some  of  the  best  volumes  of  sermons 
and  addresses  to  children.  Arnold's  "Rugby  Sermons,"  and  Dr. 
John  Todd's  "  Lectures  to  Children  "  are  of  great  value.  More  recent 
English  books  are,  Temple's  "  Rugby  Sermons ; "  Alex.  Fletcher's 
"  Lectures  to  Children; "  Bishop  Ryle's  "Boys  and  Girls  Playing,  and 
Other  Addresses  to  Children;"  Alex.  McLeod's  "The  Wonderful 
Lamp,"  "  The  Gentle  Heart,"  "  The  Children's  Portion,"  (these  are 
very  sweet  and  wholesome) ;  J.  R.  MacdufTs  "  Hosannas  of  the  Chil- 
dren, and  Other  Short  Sermons  for  Young  Worshippers;"  S.  G. 
Green's  (Baptist),  "Bible  Sketches  and  Their  Teachings  for  Young 
People."  Of  American  books,  the  following  are  recommended :  Dr. 
Richard  Newton's  series  (i8  volumes),  of  which  especially,  "Rills," 
"  The  Best  Things,"  "  Bible  Wonders,"  "  Bible  Blessings  "  (published 
in  small  volumes  by  Carters) ;  W.  W.  Newton's  (son  of  R.  Newton) 
four  volumes ;  Emerson  Andrews'  "  Youth's  Picture  Sermons ; " 
"  Outlines  of  Sermons  to  Children  "  (by  twenty-nine  Scottish  preachers, 
but  published  by  Armstrong,  New  York);  T.  T.  Eaton's  "Talks  to 
Children." 


SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR   CLASSES.        Ill 

adult  mind,  to  discourse  upon  gospel  doctrine  in  an 
abstract  and  purely  argumentative  way;  and  learn- 
ing how  to  preach  to  children  may  make  them  better 
preachers  in  general.  Merely  to  refrain  from  using 
long  words  is  not  the  thing  needed.  Children 
understand  polysyllables  just  as  well  as  monosyl- 
lables, when  they  represent  concrete,  and  familiar, 
or  easily  intelligible  conceptions.  Besides,  those 
of  a  dozen  years  are  not  pleased  at  the  appearance 
of  excessive  effort  to  use  short  words  to  them,  as  if 
they  had  no  sense.  Eschew,  then,  all  abstract  terms. 
And  instead  of  argumentation,  give  them  facts  and 
truths,  confidently  stated,  with  the  quiet  air  of 
authority  to  which  children  naturally  bow.  Let 
these  facts  and  truths  be  so  stated,  described,  or 
illustrated,  as  to  awaken  the  imagination.  The 
illustrations  should  generally  be  in  the  form  of  nar- 
rative (as  the  Great  Teacher's  were),  and  the  stories 
and  descriptions  should  be  pictorial  —  not  minutely 
finished  pictures,  for  children  weary  of  those,  but 
with  broad  outlines,  prominent  features,  and  vivid 
touches  of  suggestive  detail.  Thus  telling  them 
what  they  will  receive  as  interesting  facts  or  impor- 
tant truth,  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  charm  the  imag- 
ination, we  are  able  to  reach  the  child's  affections 
and  conscience.  Only  through  what  appeals  to  the 
imagination  can  this  be  readily  done.^ 

In  general,  in  preaching  to  children  the  three 
principal  things  to  do  are :  to  interest,  to  instruct, 
to  impress.  We  shall  speak  in  vain  unless  we 
interest  them.  Grown  people  may  pay  a  becoming 
attention  to  what  does  not  deeply  interest  them,  but 
children  do  not,  perhaps  they  cannot.  In  order  to 
interest  them  there  must  be  clearness  both  in  plan 
and  style ;  they  must  comprehend.     Now  two  favor- 

1  On  the  province  and  power  of  Imagination,  see  Part  III.  chap.  v. 


112        SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR   CLASSES. 

ite  words  with  children  are  "pretty"  and  "funny;" 
these  are  to  them  two  radiating  centres  of  thought, 
the  terms  being  extended  to  many  things  which  only 
in  some  respects  are  pretty  or  funny.  It  is  well, 
therefore,  in  seeking  to  interest  children,  to  em- 
ploy freely  the  beautiful  and  the  humorous,  yet 
neither  must  be  overdone.  In  all  sermons  to  chil- 
dren there  should  be  instruction  by  such  illustra- 
tions as  will  appeal  to  the  childish  mind;  it  may 
be  as  regards  the  fundamental  verities  of  religion. 
Sin,  Atonement,  Repentance,  Faith,  or  as  to  moral 
virtues,  such  as  Courage,  Honesty,  Purity,  Unsel- 
fishness, Industry,  Reverence.  In  impressing  chil- 
dren with  religious  truth  care  should  be  taken  to 
appeal  commonly  to  their  affections  rather  than  to 
their  fears.  We  should  not  frighten  but  win  them. 
Yet  we  must  not  forget  to  speak  in  a  proper  way  of 
wrath  and  judgment. 

The  children  must  feel  that  they  are  learning 
something,  and  must  see  that  we  are  trying  to  do 
them  good.  However  thoughtless,  changeable,  pas- 
sionate, a  child  may  be,  its  conscience  is  active. 
Every  child  quickly  recognizes  the  propriety  of  our 
seeking  to  win  it  to  love  and  serve  the  Lord,  and 
feels  that  something  is  lacking  where  this  is  not  the 
case.  However  great  the  external  attractions  of  a 
Sunday  School,  it  will  soon  grow  dull  to  the  little 
ones  if  they  do  not  learn,  especially  learn  the  Bible, 
and  breathe  there  an  atmosphere  of  genuine  piety. 
The  spasmodic  efforts  to  keep  up  the  interest  which 
are  sometimes  observed  in  Sunday  School  officers 
and  speakers  must  only  become  more  and  more 
vehement  and  extravagant  if  they  are  neglecting 
religious  instruction  and  devotional  impressiveness. 

In  dealing  with  such  restless  beings,  variety  is  of 
course  indispensable.     If  the  same  man  speaks  to 


SERMOxNS   FOR   PARTICULAR   CLASSES.        II3 

them  long,  he  must  have  great  variety  of  matter, 
feeling,  and  utterance.  Nothing  pathetic,  or  even 
solemn,  can  long  engage  their  attention,  save  under 
extraordinary  circumstances;  and  it  is  therefore 
proper  to  make  free  use  of  the  natural  reaction 
between  pathos  and  humor.  The  childish  mind 
readily  passes  "from  grave  to  gay,"  and  almost  as 
readily  back  again  to  what  is  grave.  Few  men  can 
succeed  well  in  speeches  or  sermons  to  children, 
unless  they  are  able  to  employ  at  least  a  few  touches 
of  humor.  But  if  some  speakers  through  uniform 
gravity  fail  to  maintain  the  interest,  a  still  greater 
number  at  the  present  day  indulge  in  such  an  excess 
and  predominance  of  humor,  as  to  fail  of  doing  real 
good,  and  by  degrees  to  lose  the  power  even  of  hold- 
ing the  children's  attention.  The  humor  employed 
had  best  be  delicate ;  it  may  be  broad  and  grotesque, 
but  never  coarse  or  silly.  It  must  be  manifestly 
subordinate  to  a  serious  purpose.  Children  feel  that 
you  have  no  business  seeking  on  that  occasion  merely 
to  amuse  them;  and  the  funniest  story,  the  oddest 
saying,  the  wittiest  allusion  must  by  analogy  or  by 
contrast  give  impressiveness  to  something  useful 
and  serious,  or  else  it  is  out  of  place,  and  ought  to 
have  been  omitted.  And  a  perpetual  succession  of 
merely  funny  things  will  soon  utterly  pall  upon  the 
children's  taste.  The  little  ones  that  hear  much 
speaking  grow  to  be  keen  critics ;  and  it  were  well  if 
some  speakers  could  often  hear  their  talk  at  home.^ 

1  "  He  kept  trying  to  make  us  laugh  all  the  time,  and  I  got  mighty 
tired  of  that."  "  He  told  us  about  a  little  boy,  and  wound  up  like  they 
always  do,  you  know,  *  And,  children,  that  little  boy  is  here  to-day.' " 
"He  tried  very  hard  to  be  funny,  but  I  didn't  feel  like  laughing." 
"  O  pa,  do  you  think  anybody  ought  to  be  saying  so  many  foolish 
things,  when  he 's  talking  about  our  Saviour  ? "  "  O  me,  I  used  to 
think  that  story  was  right  funny,  but  I  've  heard  it  so  often."  Parents 
sometimes  have  difficulty  in  correcting  the  evil  effects  which  are 
indicated  by  such  sayings. 

8 


114       SERMONS    FOR   PARTICULAR   CLASSES. 

Speak,  then,  of  interesting  and  instructive  facts  and 
truths,  in  concrete  and  familiar  terms,  without  formal 
argument,  analytical  processes,  or  abstract  ideas. 
Speak  to  the  child's  imagination,  heart,  and  con- 
science. Speak  with  a  prevailing  seriousness,  with 
an  earnest  desire  to  do  them  good.  And  if  you 
would  learn  their  range  of  ideas  and  their  vocabu- 
lary, would  find  the  door  to  their  hearts,  talk  much 
with  children,  and  allure  them  into  talking  freely  to 
you. 

The  remark  may  be  added,  as  of  great  importance, 
that  children  are  not  to  be  addressed  as  pious,  but  as 
needing  to  become  so;  and  that  they  have  to  be- 
come Christians  in  essentially  the  same  way  as  adults, 
by  repentance  and  faith,  through  the  renewing  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Great  mischief  results  from  the  fact 
that  so  many  who  speak  to  children  seem  not  to  per- 
ceive clearly,  or  to  keep  distinctly  in  mind,  this  un- 
questionable truth. 

It  may  be  well  to  say  a  few  words  as  to  the  occa- 
sions or  services  in  connection  with  which  it  will  be 
proper  to  preach  to  the  children.  Naturally  there  is 
considerable  diversity  of  practice  in  regard  to  this. 
It  was  a  custom  of  Whitefield  to  address  himself  to 
the  children  sometimes  in  the  midst  of  his  sermons 
to  the  general  congregation.  This  is  an  excellent 
method,  and  should  be  often  pursued  in  our  regular 
ministry;  but  it  is  scarcely  sufficient.  The  children 
should  sometimes  have  a  whole  sermon  to  them- 
selves. Others  have  had  a  brief  address  to  the  chil- 
dren before  or  after  the  regular  sermon  to  grown 
people.  This  might  be  well  sometimes,  but  it  would 
hardly  be  suitable  or  desirable  on  many  occasions. 
Children  are  tired  at  the  close  of  the  sermon,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  grown  people  whose  interest  might 
then   be   dissipated.      And   at   the   beginning   there 


SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR   CLASSES.        II5 

would  be  other  disadvantages.  Some  preachers  take 
the  Sunday  School  hour  for  an  occasional  sermon  to 
the  children.  Short  addresses  are  generally  better 
on  these  occasions,  better  both  for  the  children  and 
the  preacher.  Sometimes  the  method  has  been  tried 
of  having  a  separate  service  for  the  children  at  the 
same  hour  as  the  stated  service  for  the  congregation ; 
but  as  this  renders  it  necessary  to  have  different 
preachers  and  rooms,  it  is  usually  inconvenient.  In 
large  churches  where  there  are  several  pastors,  or 
assistants,  and  suitable  auditoriums  this  might  do 
very  well.  Another  method  is  that  of  having  stated 
or  occasional  services  for  the  children  in  the  after- 
noon in  addition  to  the  regular  services.  This  plan 
works  very  well,  and  is  generally  perhaps  better  than 
any  that  have  been  mentioned.  But  the  best  way  of 
all  seems  to  be  to  give,  either  at  regular  intervals  (as 
fifth  Sundays,  or  once  a  month),  or  by  special  ap- 
pointment, some  morning  service  to  the  children. 
Let  the  whole  service  be  theirs.  Make  it  shorter 
than  usual,  and  let  them  feel  that  it  is  their  special 
occasion.  The  grown  people  —  mostly  parents  or 
others  interested  in  children  —  will  commonly  gladly 
acquiesce  in  this  arrangement.  In  fact  some  have 
been  known  rather  to  prefer  the  children's  sermon 
to  their  own,  because  they  understood  it  better ! 

§  5.      SERMONS   FOR  OTHER   SPECIAL  CLASSES. 

For  various  reasons  the  preacher  may  find  it  desira- 
ble, and  sometimes  even  necessary,  to  preach  to  other 
special  classes  besides  the  children.  Sometimes  this 
may  be  in  connection  with  an  anniversary,  or  stated 
occasion,  or  celebration,  when  the  class  interested 
will  be  specially  concerned ;  sometimes  it  may  be  by 
request,  formal  or  private,  of  societies  or  individuals 


Il6       SERMONS   FOR   PARTICULAR   CLASSES. 

representing  the  classes  to  be  addressed ;  sometimes 
it  may  be  by  his  own  choice  along  the  course  of  his 
regular  work,  either  with  a  view  to  variety  or  for 
some  particular  reason.  Thus,  for  example,  the 
pastor  may  sometimes  wish  to  preach  especially  to 
the  aged,  to  the  bereaved,  to  young  men  or  women, 
to  mothers  or  fathers,  to  merchants,  lawyers,  doc- 
tors, teachers,  workingmen  of  various  trades,  and  the 
like.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  occasion  for  this  kind 
of  preaching  will  frequently  arise.  It  will  be  the 
pastor's  privilege  and  duty  to  make  the  best  of 
such  opportunities. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  take  up  each  of  these  classes 
of  hearers  and  discuss  the  best  ways  of  preaching  to 
them,  as  was  done  in  the  case  of  children ;  but  a  few 
general  suggestions,  applicable  more  or  less  in  all 
cases,  may  be  offered:  (i)  Be  careful  in  the  selec- 
tio7i  of  text  and  subject.  Try  to  have  those  which 
will  be  fresh,  striking,  and  appropriate;  but  avoid 
straining  after  effect,  and  particularly  eschew  what 
is  forced  and  far-fetched  in  the  application  of  subject 
to  occasion.  (2)  Do  not  be  too  pointed  and  per- 
sonal  in  address  and  application.  The  occasion  itself 
will  do  much  in  applying  what  you  say  to  the  par- 
ticular class  of  people  before  you.  There  is  danger 
of  repelling  the  very  persons  you  wish  to  reach,  if 
you  single  them  out  too  pointedly  for  direct  address. 
Yet  delicate  personal  appeal  is  natural,  and  may  be 
highly  effective.  (3)  Be  sure  to  treat  the  theme  and 
use  the  occasion  in  such  a  way  as  to  interest  and 
profit  the  general  congregation.  The  special  class 
addressed  may  be  small  in  comparison  with  the  rest 
of  the  audience,  and  even  if  they  were  in  the  major- 
ity there  would  still  be  reason  for  having  something 
useful  and  helpful  to  all.  (4)  As  always — preach 
the  gospel.      Do  not  be  betrayed  or  inveigled  into 


SERMONS    FOR   PARTICULAR   CLASSES.        11/ 

mere  sensationalism.  These  occasions  easily  degen- 
erate, in  the  hands  of  worldly  preachers,  into  means 
of  airing  themselves  before  the  community  and  in 
the  newspapers.  Shun  this  as  you  would  sin,  for  it 
is  sin.  Let  the  grand  truths  of  the  Bible  find  clear 
and  unmistakable  expression,  and  earnest,  prayerful 
application. 


Il8    GENERAL  MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 


CHAPTER  V. 

GENERAL  MATERIALS    OF  PREACHING. 


§  I.  Invention  and  its  Aids. 

2.  Accumulation  of  Materials. 

3.  Originality. 

4.  Plagiarism  and  Borrowing. 


§  5.   Freshness    in    Preaching 
—  Helps. 
6.   Sensational  Preaching  — 
Cautions. 


IN  the  ancient  treatises  on  Rhetoric  much  attention 
was  paid  to  the  invention  of  materials  for  discourse. 
Aristotle  and  Quintilian  gave  considerable  space 
in  their  famous  works  to  this  part  of  the  subject,  and 
Cicero  devoted  to  it  a  special  treatise.  In  some  mod- 
ern rhetorical  books  the  subject  receives  scant  atten- 
tion, more  consideration  being  given  to  style.  But 
latterly  our  rhetoricians  are  coming  again  to  bestow 
more  care  upon  the  matter  of  invention.  And  this  is 
well ;  for  it  is  evidently  a  matter  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance. If  important  to  every  speaker,  it  is  supremely 
important  to  the  preacher  to  have  something  to  say. 
Vapid  nothings,  no  matter  how  well  said,  should  have 
no  place  in  a  sermon.  It  is  proposed  in  this  and  sev- 
eral following  chapters  to  treat  of  the  materials  of  ser- 
mons, or  in  other  words,  of  finding  what  to  say  in 
preaching. 

§  I.    INVENTION  AND   ITS   AIDS. 

Much  in  regard  to  the  inventive  faculty  and  its  ex- 
ercise will  be  said  incidentally  as  we  proceed  with  the 
discussion  of  materials,  but  a  few  words  as  to  the  fac- 
ulty itself  and  the  best  means  of  cultivating  it  may  be 
appropriate  here. 


GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     II9 

It  is  evident,  to  start  with,  that  some  minds  are 
more  creative  than  others,  and  the  same  mind  varies 
in  this  matter  according  to  the  stage  of  its  culture, 
and  even  according  to  its  moods.  If  a  man  has  no 
power  of  invention,  he  has  mistaken  his  business 
when  he  proposes  to  be  a  preacher.  But  if  he  has 
some  natural  ability  in  this  direction  it  is  capable 
of  indefinite  cultivation.  Clearly  it  is  every  preach- 
er's imperative  duty  to  train  this  faculty  to  do  its  best 
Next  to  character  and  piety  it  is  the  most  important 
element  of  his  outfit. 

In  the  development  of  the  power  of  inventive 
thought  three  processes  are  absolutely  necessary: 
acquisition,  reflection,  exercise.  The  homely  illus- 
tration of  a  mill  may  help  us  to  see  this  more  clearly. 
For  the  production  of  meal  there  must  be  the  grain,  the 
motive  power,  and  the  actual  movement  of  exerting 
the  one  upon  the  other  by  means  of  the  machinery. 
So  in  developing  the  inventive  powers  of  the  mind 
there  must  be  knowledge,  thought,  and  constant 
use.  These  are  the  essentials.  There  are  also  special 
methods  and  means  of  stimulating  invention.  Kid- 
der ^  mentions  some  of  these  as  **  practical  sugges- 
tions in  reference  to  invention  in  the  form  of  rules  :  — 

"(i)  Address  your  mind  to  the  invention  of 
thoughts,  not  words.  Words  may  be  employed,  but 
only  as  auxiliaries. 

**  (2)  Note  down  or  otherwise  make  sure  of  what- 
ever relevant  thoughts  your  mind  can  call  to  its  aid, 
irrespective  of  order  or  mainly  so. 

"  (3)  At  first  be  not  too  scrupulous  on  the  subject 
of  relevancy.  Entertain  whatever  seemingly  good 
thoughts  come  at  your  call.  Try  them,  push  them 
out  to  conclusions.  Perhaps  if  not  available  them- 
selves they  will  lead  to  others  that  are. 

1  Horn.  p.  152. 


120  GENERAL  MATERIALS  OF  PREACHING. 

"  (4)  Pursue  invention  in  every  variety  of  cir- 
cumstance, in  the  study  and  out  of  it.  Make  it  the 
subject  of  special  and  protracted  occupation,  and 
also  of  occasional  attention,  when  walking  or  rid- 
ing, when  taking  exercise  or  rest.  One's  very 
dreams  at  night  may  often  be  made  serviceable  for 
this  object. 

**  (5)  Make  an  early  selection  of  subjects  in  order 
to  secure  the  advantages  of  the  repeated  and  inci- 
dental action  of  the  inventive  powers.  [He  means, 
early  in  the  week.  This  course  was  pursued  and 
recommended  by  Robert  Hall.] 

"  (6)  Use  former  studies  and  preparations  as  helps 
to  invention  rather  than  as  substitutes  for  it. 

"  Invention  as  thus  practised  will  always  strengthen 
but  never  exhaust  itself.  It  will  become  a  most  de- 
lightful exercise,  causing  the  mind  to  glow  with  rap- 
ture at  its.  new  creations  and  combinations." 

The  important  part  which  Imagination  plays  in  the 
invention  of  materials  will  be  noticed  in  a  subsequent 
chapter;  ^  and  the  reaction  of  arrangement  upon  in- 
vention will  attract  our  attention  in  discussing  that 
subject.^  The  question  how  far  and  in  what  ways  we 
may  properly  employ  commentaries,  sermons  upon 
the  same  text,  etc.,  in  preparing  a  sermon,  will  be 
examined  presently.^ 

§  2.      ACCUMULATION   OF  MATERIALS. 

The  chief  materials  of  a  sermon  are  in  the  great 
mass  of  cases  not  really  invented  at  the  time  of  prep- 
aration ;  they  are  the  results  of  previous  acquisition 
and  reflection.  This  is  true  even  of  much  that  seems 
to  the  preacher  himself  to  have  then  for  the  first  time 

1  Part  III.  chap.  v.  2  p^rt  II.  chap.  i. 

^  See  §  4  of  the  present  chapter. 


GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     121 

a  place  in  his  mind ;  it  is  in  fact  the  revival  of  some- 
thing forgotten,  or  the  development  of  something 
already  known.  In  this  respect  inexperienced  and 
comparatively  uncultivated  young  preachers  are  often 
greatly  deceived.  Their  early  sermons  are  made 
with  ease.  Ardent,  zealous,  excited,  they  find  that 
thought  springs  spontaneous  in  the  mind,  and  feeling 
flows  like  a  torrent.  They  imagine  that  it  will  always 
be  easy  to  find  something  to  say  which  will  interest 
themselves  and  their  hearers.  But  they  are  like  men 
who  have  inherited  a  fortune  in  cash,  and  who  spend 
their  principal  as  if  it  were  but  income.  Rejoicing 
in  his  facility  of  speech,  the  young  preacher  is  not 
aware  that  he  is  drawing  upon  all  that  he  has  thought, 
felt,  and  seen,  all  that  he  has  read  and  heard,  since 
his  childhood.  And  not  a  few  go  on  for  some 
months  or  years,  consuming  all  their  store,  and  evok- 
ing all  that  their  minds  are  so  constituted  as  readily 
to  produce,  and  presently  begin  to  wonder  and 
lament  that  they  find  it  so  much  harder  than  for- 
merly to  make  a  sermon.  In  like  manner,  preachers 
who  are  growing  old  sometimes  complain  that  peo- 
ple will  not  listen  to  them  as  in  other  days,  when  the 
difficulty  is  that  they  have  ceased  to  maintain  activity 
of  mind  and  good  store  of  fresh  thought;  and  unable 
to  interest  themselves,  they  of  course  cannot  interest 
others.  These  somewhat  frequent  and  very  painful 
experiences  only  illustrate  the  proposition  —  we  draw 
our  sermons  mainly  from  what  we  have  wrought 
out  or  learned  beforehand.  And  when  the  preacher 
speaks  from  great  fulness  of  thought,  then  what  he 
says  borrows  power  from  what  is  in  reserve,  as  the 
head  of  water  gives  force  to  that  which  strikes  upon 
the  wheel.  It  follows  that,  next  to  the  cultivation 
of  personal  piety,  there  is  nothing  for  which  the 
preacher   should   so   earnestly   labor,  from   his   first 


122     GENERAL  MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 

call  to  the  close  of  his  life,  as  the  acquisition  of 
abundant  general  materials  for  preaching.^ 

These  materials  will  of  course  be  drawn  from 
every  source.  No  kind  of  knowledge  can  be  utterly- 
useless  to  a  preacher,  and  reflection,  upon  whatever 
subjects,  will  always  leave  him  something  which  may 
hereafter  be  turned  to  account.  But  it  may  be  well 
to  remark  upon  the  principal  sources  from  which 
materials  for  preaching  are  derived. 

The  Scriptures  themselves  should  at  every  period 
of  his  Hfe  be  a  preacher's  chief  study.  When  we 
meet  a  young  brother  who  has  just  become  con- 
vinced that  it  is  his  duty  to  preach,  and  who  is  inquir- 
ing about  preparation  for  the  work,  our  first  word 
ought  to  be,  the  Bible,  —  not  so  much,  at  the  outset, 
the  profound  study  of  doctrinal  epistles  or  prophetical 
books,  as  the  familiar  and  accurate  knowledge  of  his- 
torical facts,  the  analysis  of  Biblical  characters,  the 
memorizing  of  devotional  passages  and  of  precepts, 
the  acquisition  of  a  general  familiarity  with  the  con- 
tents of  particular  books  and  of  the  entire  sacred  col- 
lection. Young  ministers,  even  graduates  of  colleges, 
are  often  found  sadly  deficient  as  to  this  general 
knowledge  of  the  Bible;  while  the  best  Sunday 
Schools,  as  well  as  the  most  admirable  family  instruc- 
tion, have  usually  but  laid  the  foundation  for  such 
knowledge  as  the  preacher  should  make  haste  to 
gain.  And  every  stage  of  culture  and  experience,  as 
life  goes  on,  presents  fresh  occasion  and  new  facilities 
for  studying  the  Bible.  In  the  originals,  if  possible, 
in  the  English  version  at  any  rate ;  ^  by  the  rapid 

1  See  Shedd  (Horn.,  p.  io8),  who  says  that  a  preacher  should 
"  acquire  and  cultivate  a  homiletical  habitude."  Everything  he  comes 
in  contact  with  should  turn  to  sermon.  Comp.  also  Brooks'  Yale 
Lectures,  p.  157. 

2  Comp.  above,  chap.  ii.  §  2,  (i). 


GENERAL  MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     123 

reading  of  large  portions,  by  the  thorough  study  of  a 
given  book,  by  the  minute  examination  of  particular 
passages,  and  sometimes  even  by  looking  at  sentences 
here  and  there  as  we  turn  over  the  leaves ;  by  reading 
in  company  with  others,  for  discussion  or  for  sym- 
pathy, by  reading  when  alone  with  our  beating  hearts 
and  our  God ;  by  adopting  new  methods  for  variety, 
and  by  steadily  maintaining  old  methods  till  they 
become  habitual ;  by  reading  when  we  enjoy  it,  as  a 
pleasure,  and  when  at  the  beginning  we  do  not  enjoy 
it,  as  a  duty,  —  every  way,  and  continually,  let  us 
keep  up,  freshen,  extend  our  acquaintance  with  the 
precious  Word  of  God.  The  study  of  Systematic 
Divinity  will  but  prepare  us  better  to  appreciate  the 
separate  teachings  of  Scripture  as  they  stand  in  their 
own  connection.  Every  kind  of  knowledge  we  gain 
should  lead  to  further  examination  of  that  which  is 
for  us  the  centre  of  all  knowledge,  and  the  various 
experiences  of  life  should  be  constantly  bringing  us 
back  to  find  new  meaning,  strength,  and  consolation 
in  God's  Word.  And  we  must  constantly  beware 
lest  we  fall  into  the  habit  of  reading  the  Bible  only 
as  a  perfunctory  matter,  a  professional  duty.  In  the 
spirit  of  personal  devoutness,  with  a  desire  for  per- 
sonal benefit,  and  with  the  constant  prayer  that  God 
would  bless  us  in  learning  and  in  teaching,  let  us 
study  the  Bible,  that  we  may  **  both  save  ourselves, 
and  them  that  hear  us."  ^ 

Systematic  Theology  is  of  unspeakable  importance 
to  the  preacher,  indispensable  if  he  would  be  in  the 
best  sense  instructive,  and  exert  an  abiding  influence 
over  his  hearers.  This  enables  him  to  speak  with  the 
boldness  of  assured   conviction,  giving  him  a  confi- 

1  Alexander  has  some  admirable  thoughts  and  suggestions  on  the 
study  of  the  Bible,  especially  for  ministers  of  middle  age,  and  of  con- 
siderable attainments,  in  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  pp.  56-60,  and  pp. 
464-466. 


^ 


124     GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 

dence  in  the  great  system  of  inspired  truth  which  no 
minute  criticism  can  shake.^  This  prepares  him  to 
urge  one  doctrine,  or  to  unfold  and  apply  one  text, 
without  the  fear  of  offending  against  another,  —  a 
fault  into  which  many  ministers  are  grieved  to  remem- 
ber how  often  their  early  sermons  fell.  This  renders 
it  practicable  to  discuss  particular  aspects  of  a  doc- 
trine in  different  sermons,  in  such  a  way  as  by  de- 
grees to  impart  a  good  knowledge  of  the  doctrine  as 
a  whole.  And  the  manifest  possession  of  a  syste- 
matic acquaintance  with  revealed  truth  gives  him 
authority  with  the  people.  They  readily  listen  to  one 
who  has  definite,  positive,  and  well-considered  opin- 
ions; and  no  uninspired  man,  even  of  the  highest 
genius,  has  a  right  to  be  so  authoritative  in  his  utter- 
ances upon  moral  and  spiritual  truth,  as  a  preacher  of 
humble  powers,  who  speaks  from  a  thorough  and 
systematic  study  of  God's  Word.^  Exegesis  and  Sys- 
tematic Theology  properly  go  hand  in  hand.  Neither 
is  complete,  neither  is  really  safe,  without  the  other. 
And  while  a  man  will  be  apt  to  feel  himself  specially 
attracted  towards  one  of  them,  according  to  his  men- 
tal constitution  and  training,  and  will  naturally  work 
extensively  at  that  one,  he  ought  also  diligently, 
regularly,  and  through  life,  to  pursue  the  other.  A 
preacher  ought  almost  always  to  have  on  hand  some 
able  treatise  of  Theology,  new  or  old,  which  he 
is  regularly  studying,  or  some  particular  topic  of 
Divinity,  which  he  makes  the  subject  of  much  reading 
and  reflection. 

1  An  eminent  English  Bishop,  and  leading  writer  on  Exegesis, 
states  in  a  private  letter  his  persuasion  that  the  study  of  Systematic 
Theology  would  have  prevented  much  of  that  semi-skepticism  which 
is  now  painfully  common  among  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England. 
R.  W.  Dale,  Yale  Lectures,  p.  7  fF.,  has  some  excellent  remarks  on  the 
advantages  of  studying  Theology. 

2  Comp.  Shedd,  Horn.,  p.  26  ff. 


GENERAL  MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     125 

Of  other  reading,  regarded  as  an  important  source 
of  materials  for  preaching,  there  can  be  only  brief 
mention.  Church  History  does  not  usually  re- 
ceive from  working  ministers  the  attention  it  de- 
serves. Especially  does  the  history  of  Doctrines 
assist  one  in  understanding  the  truth,  and  in  compre- 
hending those  objections  and  erroneous  tendencies 
which  under  different  forms  reproduce  themselves  in 
every  age.  Every  religious  denomination  has  certain 
characteristic  or  favorite  doctrines,  which  its  standard 
works  bring  out  with  clearness  and  prominence ;  so 
that  apart  from  the  necessary  provision  for  polemical 
preaching,  and  from  the  common  stock  of  Christian 
Theology,  there  is  much  to  be  learned  by  studying 
the  peculiar  opinions  of  different  denominations. 
Ethical  Philosophy  furnishes  a  rich  store  of  materials 
for  those  who  can  really  master  its  discussions,  and 
adapt  their  results  to  the  conditions  of  practical 
preaching;  and  there  are  some  works,  such  as  Butler's 
Analogy,  and  McCosh  on  the  Divine  Government, 
occupying  a  sort  of  border  ground  between  Ethics 
and  Theology,  which  are  unsurpassed  in  vajue. 
Some  ministers  are  "  too  metaphysical "  in  their 
preaching,  but  very  many  are  not  metaphysical 
enough  in  their  studies}  The  study  of  Sermons  is 
not  only  very  useful  with  reference  to  the  art  of  ser- 
monizing, but  affords  much  valuable  material,  pro- 
vided it  be  not  borrowed  directly,  but  assimilated  by 
reflection  and  made  part  of  one's  own  thinking.  The 
careful  analysis  and  thorough  and  repeated  examina- 
tion of  a  few  rich  and  impressive  sermons,  is  much 
better,  in  every  respect,  than  the  cursory  reading  of 
many. 

And  so  as  to  all  our  reading.     Young  men  who  have 

1  "  Read  Butler,  and  preach  to  the  negroes,"  was  the  advice  given 
to  a  young  preacher,  many  years  ago,  by  a  judicious  senior. 


126    GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 

enjoyed  but  limited  opportunities  of  culture,  and 
have  never  looked  out  with  eager  eyes  upon  the 
great  world  of  books,  sometimes  need  to  be  urged  to 
read  more  widely;  but  in  the  immense  majority  of 
cases,  very  different  advice  is  required.  He  who 
would  become  really  a  man  must  abandon  as  early  as 
possible  the  childish  dream  of  reading  everything. 
Except  what  is  done  for  recreation  —  and  excessive 
recreation  is  destruction  —  he  must  have  a  limited 
field  of  study,  and  must  cultivate  that  field  with  the 
utmost  possible  thoroughness.  And  upon  every  sub- 
ject studied,  he  must  find  out  the  best  books,  and 
restrict  himself  almost  entirely  to  those.  If  the  men 
of  true  scholarship  and  real  power  were  called  on  to 
give  one  counsel  to  young  students,  in  this  age  of 
multiplied  books,  they  would  probably  all  unite  in 
saying.  Read  only  the  best  works  of  the  great 
authors,  and  so  read  these  as  to  make  them  thor- 
oughly and  permanently  your  own.^ 

Whether  it  is  better  to  make  extracts,  summaries, 
and  references  in  a  Commonplace  Book,  or  to  rely 
mainly  on  memory  in  reading,  will  depend  on  a  man's 
turn  of  mind  and  general  habits,  and  on  the  kind  of 
reading  in  question.  Even  a  man  of  extraordinary 
memory  can  hardly  dispense  with  memoranda  in 
reading  books  of  information  ;  while  books  of  thought, 
though  they  may  be  profitably  analyzed  in  writing, 
should  be  thought  over,  thought  through  and  through, 
and  then  all  that  is  cognate  to  our  own  thinking  will 
be  without  difficulty  retained.  As  regards  whatever 
is  not  matter  of  pure  thought,  an  important  part  of 
the  benefit  derived  from  reading  is  this,  that  one  will 
always  know  where  to  look  for  what  he  wants ;  and 
this  can  be  best  accomplished  by  a  system  of  refer- 
ences, unless  the  power  of  local  memory  is  found, 
1  Comp.  Shedd,  Horn.,  pp.  121-124. 


-     GENERAL  MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     127 

upon  fair  trial,  to  suffice  for  the  purpose.  Which- 
ever method  one  adopts,  he  must  strive  to  make  the 
best  of  it,  guarding  carefully  against  its  disadvantages 
and  dangers. 

But  there  are  other  sources  of  materials  for  preach- 
ing besides  books.^  A  preacher's  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  and  knowledge  of  the  world,  his  expe- 
rience of  life,  and  especially  of  the  religious  life,  his 
conversation  with  those  around  him  upon  religious 
and  upon  general  themes,  his  perpetual  reflection 
upon  everything  felt,  observed,  or  heard,  —  these 
afford  a  large  part  of  his  most  valuable  materials. 
And  all  his  previous  preaching,  if  rightly  managed, 
has  but  enriched  the  mind  to  meet  further  demands. 
If  one  merely  scrapes  together  thoughts  around  a 
subject,  so  as  to  make  a  sermon,  then  every  sermon 
consumes  part  of  his  material,  and  leaves  him  poorer. 
But  if  he  habitually  penetrates  into  a  subject  and 
masters  it,  every  sermon  leaves  him  richer ;  not  that 
he  can  shortly  preach  again  upon  the  same  topic  or 
text,  but  that  he  is  better  prepared  for  treating 
others  akin  to  it.  There  is  a  fertilizing  production. 
In  this  sense  too,  "  there  is  that  scattereth,  and  yet 
increaseth."  But  this  general  preparation  is  of  course 
not  sufficient. 

No  matter  how  widely  read  and  full  of  general 
knowledge  and  thought  a  preacher  may  be,  he  must 
yet  make  special  accumulation  of  materials  for  each 
sermon.  Many  a  preacher,  particularly  after  he  has 
had  long  years  of  experience  and  has  accumulated  a 
considerable  amount  of  sermon  stock,  has  failed  right 
here.  He  depends  on  general  instead  of  special 
preparation.  No  man  can  keep  fresh  who  does  not 
put  fresh  material  in  every  sermon  —  something  which 

^  Upon  sources  of  Illustration,  see  remarks  below,  chap.  vii.  Prof. 
Phelps'  Men  and  Books  is  an  excellent  treatise  on  this  subject 


128     GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING. 

particularly  belongs  to  that  sermon  and  occasion  and 
fits  no  others  so  well.  It  is  imperative,  therefore, 
that  the  preacher  should  also  give  his  very  careful 
thought  not  only  to  his  general  stock,  but  to  what 
may  be  called  materials  provided  at  the  time. 

These  embrace  the  interpretation  of  the  text,  and 
the  choice  of  a  subject,  which  we  have  already  con- 
sidered. The  precise  mode  of  stating  a  subject  can 
in  many  cases  not  be  fixed  until  after  we  have 
wrought  out  much  of  the  general  materials  for  the 
treatment  of  it.  Besides  interpreting  the  text,  in  the 
strict  sense  of  the  phrase,  much  may  be  derived  from 
reflecting  on  it,  and  on  its  connection.  If  the  treat- 
ment be  textual  or  expository,  a  large  part  of  the 
materials  will  be  derived  from  this  study  of  the  text ; 
if  it  be  a  subject-sermon,  still  the  text  and  its  context 
may  furnish  much  that  will  be  useful  in  the  discussion 
of  the  topic.  Then  fixing  the  mind  upon  the  subject, 
or  in  succession  upon  the  several  related  subjects  fur- 
nished by  the  textual  or  expository  method,  the 
preacher  must  attempt  the  complete  analysis  and 
copious  development  of  the  matters  involved,  and  the 
collection  of  all  associated  matters  which  are  likely 
to  be  useful.  Yet  it  is  plain  that  this  provision  of 
material  for  immediate  use  will  often  really  be  very 
largely  selection  from  the  general  stock  of  previously 
acquired  knowledge  and  thought.  It  will  be  a  com- 
bination of  two  things :  deliberate  choice  and  selection 
from  the  storehouse  of  memory  and  reflection,  and 
the  spontaneous  coming  of  thoughts  by  the  law  of 
association  of  ideas.  Awaken  a  memory,  get  a 
thought,  and  others  will  come  to  keep  them  com- 
pany. So  there  will  be  a  delightful  mingling  of  old 
and  new.  The  well  instructed  scribe,  as  the  Master 
has  said,  will  be  bringing  out  of  his  treasury  things 
new  and  old. 


GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     I2g 

§  3.    ORIGINALITY. 

Whether  the  materials  are  possessed  beforehand, 
or  provided  at  the  time  of  preparation,  it  is  obvious 
that  they  might  be  original,  or  borrowed.  Under  this 
relation  they  will  now  be  considered. 

(i)  Originality  may  be  absolute^  or  relative.  By 
the  former  is  meant  bringing  into  existence  thoughts 
which  the  world  never  knew  before,  which  had  never 
arisen  in  any  human  mind.  Of  course  this  must  be 
very  rare.  In  the  physical  world,  new  facts  are  now 
constantly  ascertained,  and  new  mechanical  contri- 
vances invented.  But  in  the  world  of  ideas,  it  is  very 
difficult  to  be  absolutely  original.^  "  The  ancients 
have  stolen  all  our  best  ideas,"  is  one  of  the  sayings 
of  the  great  Edinburgh  Reviewer  which  cannot  soon 
be  forgotten.  And  Goethe  said  :  "  Very  little  of  me 
would  be  left,  if  I  could  but  say  what  I  owe  to 
my  predecessors  and  my  contemporaries."  But  not 
in  modern  times  alone  has  this  been  felt.  Hear 
Chaucer :  — 

"  For  out  of  the  old  fieldes,  as  men  saithe, 
Cometh  al  this  new  corne  fro  yere  to  yere, 
And  out  of  olde  bookes,  in  good  faithe, 
Cometh  al  this  new  science  that  men  lere." 

And  Confucius,  five  centuries  before  our  era,  pro- 
claimed himself  only  a  student  of  antiquity.  Yet 
even  in  this  absolute  sense,  originality  is  possible, 
and  we  should  not  despair.  Progress  in  some  direc- 
tions the  world's  thought  does  slowly  make.  Among 
all  the  uncounted  millions  of  men,  patient  thinkers  are 
far  from  numerous ;  and  he  who  will  patiently  think, 

^  Shedd,  Horn.,  p.  8,  makes  it  impossible,  but  he  uses  the  word 
absolute  in  a  different  sense.  N.  J.  Burton  has  a  striking  and  char- 
acteristic discussion  of  Originality  in  his  Yale  Lectures,  p.  64  ff. 

9 


130    GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING. 

why  may  he  not  light  upon  some  thought  unknown  to 
those  who  have  gone  before  him? 

But  relatively^  any  man  may  be  original,  and  to 
some  extent  every  man  is  so.  We  produce  thoughts 
which  were  not  by  us  derived  from  any  other  mind, 
though  other  minds,  at  the  time  unknown  to  us,  have 
also  produced  them.  The  same  phases  of  nature  and 
experiences  of  life  awaken  in  us  the  same  reflec- 
tions they  have  awakened  in  many  others ;  and  seed- 
thoughts  attain  in  us  the  same  developments.  Here 
there  is  everything  to  encourage.  Much  of  the  men- 
tal quickening,  the  conscious  vigor,  and  buoyant  self- 
reliance,  which  result  from  absolute  originality,  may 
also  be  wrought  in  us  by  thoughts  relatively  original. 
Of  course  the  mental  elation  will  not  be  so  great, 
where  we  know  that  others  must  have  had  the  same 
thought.  In  fact,  some  of  the  most  marvellous  self- 
conceit  is  to  be  observed  in  certain  very  ignorant 
men,  who  mistake  their  relative  originality  for  abso- 
lute; thoughts  having  occurred  to  them  which  nei- 
ther they  nor  their  ignorant  neighbors  had  heard  of, 
are  supposed  to  be  equally  new  to  all  the  world. 

Now  the  basis  of  preaching  cannot  be  original,  be- 
cause it  must  come  from  Scripture.  But  the  preacher 
may  be  original  in  several  ways.  He  may  have  origi- 
nal views  of  the  meaning  of  Scripture.  It  is  entirely 
possible  that  any  one  of  us  should  attain  more  just 
conceptions  of  the  meaning  of  some  passage,  or  cer- 
tain aspects  of  a  doctrine,  than  have  ever  before  been 
gained.  And  to  interpret  and  ponder  for  ourselves, 
in  the  sense  of  relative  originality,  is  the  privilege 
and  the  duty  of  all.  We  have  no  right  to  take  for 
granted  that  commentators  and  theologians  are  cor- 
rect in  their  opinions;  and  in  fact  theological  dis- 
cords and  conflicts,  with  all  their  evils,  have  this 
advantage,  that  they  compel  the  most  trusting  and 


GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     131 

the  most  slothful  of  us  somewhat  to  feel  the  neces- 
sity of  thinking  for  ourselves.  What  freshness,  what 
power  there  is,  in  truths  which  the  preacher  has  him- 
self wrought  out  from  Scripture,  drawing  with  his  own 
bucket,  as  Lord  Bacon  says,  "  immediately  where  it 
springeth."  The  student  of  physical  science  must 
observe  nature  for  himself;  and  so  in  Theology,  we 
must  open  our  own  eyes  to  behold  and  contemplate 
the  teachings  of  God's  Word.  There  is  no  limit  to 
the  relative  originality  which  may  in  this  respect 
be  achieved.  Again,  the  combination  of  Scripture 
teachings  with  the  facts  and  truths  which  we  derive 
from  nature,  providence,  human  nature,  life,  affords 
large  room  for  originality.  Here  in  every  direction 
the  mind  may  expatiate,  bringing  all  things  into  rela- 
tion to  the  Word  of  God.  And  then  in  the  choice  of 
topics,  the  construction  of  discourse,  the  illustration 
and  application  of  truth,  a  preacher  may  perpetually 
devise  what  shall  be  in  some  respects  fresh,  and  rela- 
tively to  him,  original.  And  in  fact  a  man  has  his 
own  way  of  presenting  any  subject  whatever,  which 
derives  power  from  association  with  his  personality ; 
and  other  things  being  equal,  this  is  for  him  the  best 
way.     "  Put  honor  upon  your  individuality." 

Originality  is  sometimes  aimed  at  in  unworthy 
ways,  or  made  matter  of  affectation.  Men  of  a  cer- 
tain character  will  take  up  with  some  heresy ^  merely 
to  display  independence,  to  show  that  they,  forsooth, 
are  not  tied  down  to  the  old  opinions.  Paradox  may 
be  properly  employed,  as  it  is  by  some  able  teachers 
and  preachers,  as  it  was  by  our  Lord  himself,  to 
awaken  attention  to  truth ;  but  there  are  those  who 
deal  in  the  paradoxical  as  showing  originality.  Oddity ^ 
in  ideas,  expressions,  or  manner,  is  a  mere  caricature 
of  originality.  To  say  that  such  and  such  a  preacher 
is  "  an  original,"  is  to  use  the  term  in  a  very  degraded 


132     GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 

sense.  Young  men,  and  even  older  ones,  sometimes 
pretend  not  to  read,  lest  it  should  impair  their  origi- 
nality. "  We  have  seen  the  works  of  a  painter, 
who  would  see  no  Raffaelles  or  Van  Dycks,  lest  he 
should  spoil  his  native  manner.  He  has  certainly  suc- 
ceeded in  avoiding  all  that  one  beholds  in  these  great 
masters."  ^ 

(2)  W/ij/  is  originality  so  desirable  f  We  may  an- 
swer, first,  that  independent  thinking,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  will  develop,  disciphne,  and  strengthen  the 
mind.  In  the  matter  of  mental  improvement,  it  must 
never  be  forgotten,  the  hardest  way  is  the  easiest  way, 
the  slow  way  the  swiftest.  So  far  as  a  man's  health 
and  vigor  is  concerned,  a  week's  quiet  walking  is 
worth  much  more  than  a  week's  travel  on  the  cars, 
though  the  latter  should  carry  him  thousands  of  miles. 
If  it  be  possible,  let  us  persuade  ourselves  to  much  of 
independent  and  patient  thinking,  otherwise  we  shall 
never  be  men. 

Again,  remember  that  originality  renders  discourse 
greatly  more  attractive  and  impressive.  On  the  one 
hand,  an  original  thought  interests  the  speaker  more. 
It  is  his  offspring ;  it  awakens  in  him  a  parental  affec- 
tion, and  perhaps  a  thrill  of  paternal  pride.  It  is  his 
possession;  he  is  no  dispenser  now  of  other  men's 
bounty,  but  gives  of  his  own ;  and  in  knowledge,  as 
elsewhere,  "  to  give  is  happier  than  to  receive." 
But  no  analogies  will  do  justice  to  the  feeling  —  the 
pleasure,  the  confidence,  the  hopefulness  and  earnest- 
ness, with  which  a  man  utters  what  is  even  relatively 
original.  On  the  other  hand,  it  interests  the  audience 
more.  As  simply  new,  it  gratifies  their  natural  love  of 
novelty.  If  they  consider  the  thought  original  with  the 
speaker,  there  arises  a  heightened  admiration  of  him, 
and  a  higher  regard  for  all  that  he  says.     And  then 

i  Alexander,  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  p.  362. 


GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     133 

they  sympathize  with  the  speaker's  own  feeling.  What- 
ever makes  his  mind  glow  will  warm  theirs.  In  gen- 
eral, no  man  can  interest  others,  save  by  that  which 
exceedingly  interests  himself.  Thus  the  two  causes 
combine.  And  no  doubt  there  are  other  causes. 
Analysis  cannot  fully  reach  the  secret  of  that  delight 
with  which  we  regard  what  comes  as  a  new  creation, 
a  fresh  existence.  But  even  a  little  reflection  should 
make  us  feel  more  deeply  the  importance  of  original 
thinking. 

It  is  an  obvious  inference  that  we  ought  to  think 
out  for  ourselves  the  most  familiar  topics,  and  exhibit 
them  in  our  own  manner.  In  discoursing  upon 
matters  so  commonplace  as  the  pleasures  of  piety, 
or  the  danger  of  delay,  one  should  strive,  by  long 
and  earnest  reflection,  to  gain  views  of  the  subject, 
or  a  method  of  presenting  it,  which  will  be  his  own. 
Happy  the  preacher  who  can  thus  give  to  momen- 
tous but  too  familiar  themes  some  heightened  in- 
terest, some  new  impressiveness.  Yet  the  warning 
must  here  be  repeated :  mere  oddity  is  a  very  diff"er- 
ent  thing  from  originality,  and  it  is  better  to  be  com- 
monplace but  in  earnest,  than  to  be  manifestly 
straining  after  novelty. 

Another  inference  is,  that  even  ideas  which  have 
been  borrowed,  ought  to  be  so  thoroughly  thought 
over  as  to  become  a  part  of  our  own  thinking. 
Otherwise  they  will  commonly  fail  to  take  a  firm 
hold  of  ourselves  or  of  the  hearers.  As  a  govern- 
ment often  takes  foreign  coins  and  passes  them 
through  its  own  mint,  so  the  thoughts  derived  from 
others  should  receive  the  stamp  of  our  own  minds, 
which  will  give  them  newness  of  aspect,  full  value, 
and  ready  acceptance. 

(3)  Obstacles  to  originality.  These  are  numerous 
and  powerful,  as  might  be  taken  for  granted  when 


134    GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING. 

we  remember  how  desirable  it  is  to  be  original,  and 
yet  how  rarely  it  is  found  in  any  high  degree. 

Erroneous  views  of  the  nature  of  originality  prevent 
many  persons  from  attaining  it.  Some  imagine  that 
there  can  be  nothing  worth  the  name,  unless  it  be 
absolutely  original,  new  to  the  human  race;  and  as 
this  can  of  course  be  very  seldom  achieved,  they 
despair,  and  content  themselves  too  commonly  with 
taking  ideas  at  second  hand.  But,  as  we  have  seen, 
relative  originality  of  a  very  high  order  may  exist, 
where  there  is  little  or  nothing  of  absolute  addition 
to  the  stock  of  human  knowledge,  and  may  greatly 
augment  a  man's  power.  Some  refrain  from  reading 
as  a  means  of  promoting  originality,  and  thus  con- 
demn themselves  to  great  mental  barrenness.  It 
would  be  as  wise  to  avoid  conversation.  Who  does 
not  know  the  quickening,  fructifying  power  of  talk 
with  an  intelligent  friend  upon  a  subject  which  we 
have  been  studying?  Though  nothing  be  directly 
borrowed,  yet  new  thoughts  are  often  suggested,  and 
we  are  led  to  see  more  clearly  what  we  had  but 
dimly  perceived.  The  same  effect  may  be  produced 
by  reading.  In  general,  we  ought  vigorously  and 
patiently  to  think  upon  the  subject  before  either 
reading  or  conversing  upon  it;  otherwise,  the  mind 
is  in  danger  of  merely  following  the  track  which 
others  have  marked  out,  instead  of  approaching  the 
subject  in  its  own  manner.  But  after  such  personal 
reflection,  then  reading  and  conversation  may  be 
found  highly  stimulating  and  suggestive,  leading  to 
much  that  is  really  our  own,  but  which  without  this 
contact  with  other  minds  would  not  have  occurred  to 
us.  A  third  class,  by  mistaking  oddity  or  eccentricity 
for  originality,  misdirect  and  pervert  their  aspirations 
and  powers,  and  not  only  fail  to  accomplish  what 
they   might   have   done,  but  prejudice   many,  who 


GENERAL  MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     135 

make  the  same  mistake,  against  the  idea  of  trying 
to  be  original.  And  still  another  error  is  seen  in 
the  fact  that  credit  for  originality  is  so  often  wrongly 
assigned.  Some  men  really  think  profoundly,  and 
develop  views  thoroughly  their  own,  but  as  they 
state  them  with  great  clearness  and  simplicity,  the 
masses  think  that  anybody  might  have  said  that,  and 
that  they  themselves  always  knew  it.  Others,  by 
holding  up  dim,  formless  phantoms  of  thought,  by 
using  obscure,  but  high-wrought,  peculiar,  and  im- 
passioned language,  are  regarded  as  wonderfully 
original,  when  if  their  ideas  were  brought  out  in  a 
clear  light  they  would  appear  to  be  either  nothing  at 
all,  or  something  very  familiar.  Thus  it  happens  that 
aspiring  young  minds,  setting  out  in  pursuit  of  origi- 
nality, are  sometimes  led  to  seek  it  in  affectations  of 
style,  rather  than  in  genuine,  clear  thinking.^  Well 
says  Phillips  Brooks :  ^  "Be  yourself  by  all  means, 
but  let  that  good  result  come  not  by  cultivating 
merely  superficial  peculiarities  and  oddities.  Let  it 
be  by  winning  a  true  self  full  of  your  own  faith  and 
your  own  love.  The  deep  originality  is  noble,  but 
the  surface  originality  is  miserable.  It  is  so  easy  to 
be  a  John  the  Baptist,  as  far  as  the  desert  and  camel's 
hair  and  locusts  and  wild  honey  go.  But  the  devoted 
heart  to  speak  from,  and  the  fiery  words  to  speak, 
are  other  things." 

It  may  be  said  that  no  persons  capable  of  much 
originality  would  fall  into  such  errors  as  these ;  but 
not  only  do  they  diminish  the  amount  of  original 

1  Archbishop  Whately  was  fond  of  comparing  this  would-be 
original  style  to  the  case  of  Dean  Swift's  antiquary,  who  had  found 
a  Roman  shield  with  some  very  curious  and  almost  legible  inscrip- 
tions, which  he  invited  a  party  of  friends  to  help  him  decipher ;  but 
the  cook  having  taken  a  notion  to  scour  off  the  rust,  it  turned  out  to 
be  an  old  pot-lid. 

*  Lectures  on  Preaching,  p.  24. 


136    GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 

thinking  in  multitudes,  but  they  have  also  much 
effect  upon  some  men  of  considerable  powers. 

A  second  hindrance  is  found  in  native  indolence. 
Original  thinking  is  difficult,  laborious,  and  usually 
slow,  the  hardest  work  that  men  ever  attempt.  Who 
can  wonder  that  easy  borrowing,  or  even  shameless 
stealing,  is  so  often  substituted? 

A  third  obstacle,  especially  at  the  present  day,  is 
the  vast  extension  of  literature,  and  the  attractive 
forms  which  new  books  and  periodicals  assume, 
seducing  us  by  their  charm,  or  imposing  on  us 
unreal  claims  to  our  acquaintance.  Reading  ac- 
companied by  honest  thinking  is  promotive  of 
originality;  but  we  are  tempted  to  waste  ourselves 
upon  a  species  of  reading  which  does  not  demand 
reflection,  nor  leave  time  for  it.  One  who  is  inclined 
to  free  indulgence  in  light  literature  must  curb  him- 
self with  a  very  steady  hand,  or  he  will  never  achieve 
much  as  a  thinker,  nor  be  in  any  respect  worth  much 
to  the  world.  Even  of  books  upon  religious  subjects, 
very  many  of  the  most  attractive  that  appear  are  by 
no  means  so  stimulating,  so  provocative  of  good 
thinking,  as  the  older  books  from  which  they  were 
mainly  drawn. 

And  the  character  of  the  age  is  in  many  respects 
unfavorable  to  profound  thought.  The  demand  is 
for  quick  processes,  and  so-called  *'  practical  "  results. 
"  Knowledge  made  easy  "  is  the  rage.  The  inevitable 
result  is  a  grievous  tendency  to  superficiality  among 
the  people,  and  in  their  instructors  to  the  display  of 
prodigiously  extensive  and  varied  superficial  attain- 
ments. Teachers  are  tempted  to  substitute  readi- 
ness, variety,  boundless  surface-knowledge,  with 
brilliancy,  and  point  and  paradox,  for  deep  think- 
ing, and  thorough  acquaintance  with  a  few  subjects. 
We    must    constantly    remind    ourselves    that    real 


GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     13/ 

knowledge  has  three  dimensions,  length,  breadth, 
and  depth.  Our  acquisitions  in  that  noble  domain 
should  not  be  confined  to  the  surface  of  things,  but 
should  correspond  to  the  old  law  as  to  the  tenure 
of  land,  by  which  possession  extends  up  to  the  sky, 
and  down  to  the  centre  of  the  earth.  Such  knowl- 
edge is  the  handmaid,  nay,  the  sister  of  original 
thought.^ 

Two  remarks  may  be  made  here  in  conclusion. 
One  is,  that  the  preacher  should  not  desire  to  origi- 
nate any  part  of  the  fundamental  material  of  his 
preaching.  He  should  not  only  submit,  but  rejoice, 
to  take  this  from  the  Word  of  God.  Too  many 
preachers  are  in  these  days  seeking  after  originality, 
and  other  novelty,  by  forsaking  the  Scriptures. 
The  other  remark  is,  that  we  must  not  aspire  after 
originality  in  the  spirit  of  pride  or  selfish  ambition, 
but  as  a  means  of  doing  more  to  benefit  men,  and  to 
glorify  the  Redeemer. 

§  4.    PLAGIARISM  AND  BORROWING. 

A  plagiary,  among  the  Romans,  was  a  kidnapper, 
one  who  stole  free  men  and  made  slaves  of  them ; 
also  one  who  stole  or  enticed  away  another  man's 
slave  to  use  or  sell  as  his  own,  and  this  secondary 
sense  appears  to  be  that  which  gave  rise  to  the 
literary  usage.  A  late  Roman  writer,  by  a  natural 
analogy,  applies  the  odious  name  to  one  guilty  of 
literary  theft,  stealing  and  using  another  man's 
ideas ;  and  the  languages  derived  from  Latin  retain 
the  word  in  this  sense.  Plagiarism  has  from  the 
earliest  times  been  censured  and  satirized,  and  no 
man  defends  it,  any  more  than  other  stealing  would 

1  Some  of  these  obstacles  are  mentioned  in  the  Christian  Review 
for  1842,  p.  142  ff. 


138     GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 

be  defended.^  But  then  what  is  plagiarism,  and 
what  is  lawful  borrowing  ?  Some  practise  the  former 
who  design  only  the  latter,  and  some,  through  mor- 
bid dread  of  that  which  is  disgraceful,  shrink  from 
what  is  innocent  and  helpful.  There  are  two  ques- 
tions to  be  considered,  the  proper  use  of  other  men's 
thoughts,  and  the  proper  acknowledgment  of  such 
use. 

(i)  What  use  is  it  proper  to  make,  in  preparing  a 
sermon,  of  ideas  derived  from  others.?  The  ques- 
tion is  in  principle  the  same,  as  regards  what  we 
have  read,  and  what  we  have  heard;  though  many 
persons  who  are  much  more  strict  as  to  the  fruits 
of  reading  use  with  great  freedom  what  they  have 
heard,  in  the  pulpit,  the  lecture-room,  or  in  conver- 
sation. But  in  another  respect  the  inquiry,  as  a 
practical  one  for  him  who  is  about  to  prepare  a 
sermon,  divides  again. 

{a)  What  use  shall  be  made  of  that  which  we 
have  previously  learned  t 

Never  appropriate  an  entire  discourse,  whether 
with  or  without  acknowledgment.  It  might  be  law- 
ful, under  peculiar  circumstances,  to  read  to  an 
audience  some  choice  sermon,  avowedly  as  reading; 
as  an  occasional  exercise,  by  a  good  reader,  and  with 
a  congregation  who  fancy  it,  this  might  do  good. 
Such  was  in  fact  the  idea  which  Addison  recom- 
mended in  the  oft-quoted  humorous  account  of  Sir 

i  Chrysostom,  in  his  beautiful  treatise  on  the  Priesthood  (§  451), 
makes  a  slightly  humorous  complaint  as  to  the  charges  of  plagiarism 
against  preachers,  sometimes  even  for  repeating  what  was  their  own. 
And  Augustine  does  defend  the  practice  in  a  strange  fashion  (De 
Doct.  Christ.,  Lib.  IV,,  cap.  xxix.,  n.  62),  saying  that  one  must  not 
be  accused  of  theft  or  plagiarism  for  preaching  "  alienos  sermones," 
if  he  lives  according  to  the  teachings  they  contain,  for  thereby  it  be- 
comes his  own  ;  "  for  the  word  of  God  is  not  alien  to  a  man  who  obeys 
it."  Strange  what  quibbling  sophistry  great  minds  sometimes  permit 
themselves  to  use  1 


GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING.     139 

Roger  de  Coverley's  chaplain, —  just  reading  or  recit- 
ing a  sermon  as  one  might  do  with  a  poem;  and  the 
hearers  enjoying  it  in  much  the  same  way. 

"  ^  At  his  first  settling  with  me,  I  made  him  a  present  of 
all  the  good  sermons  which  have  been  printed  in  Enghsh, 
and  only  begged  of  him  that  every  Sunday  he  would  pro- 
nounce one  of  them  in  the  pulpit.  Accordingly,  he  has 
digested  them  into  such  a  series,  and  they  follow  one  an- 
other naturally,  and  make  a  continued  system  of  practical 
divinity.' 

"  As  Sir  Roger  was  going  on  in  his  story,  the  gentleman 
we  were  talking  of  came  up  to  us ;  and  upon  the  knight's 
asking  him  who  preached  to-morrow  (for  it  was  Saturday 
night),  told  us,  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph  in  the  morning,  and 
Dr.  South  in  the  afternoon.  He  then  showed  us  his  list 
of  preachers  for  the  whole  year ;  where  I  saw  with  a  great 
deal  of  pleasure  Archbishop  Tillotson,  Bishop  Sanderson, 
Dr.  Barrow,  Dr.  Calamy,  with  several  living  authors  who 
have  published  discourses  of  practical  divinity.  I  no  sooner 
saw  this  venerable  man  in  the  pulpit,  but  I  very  much  ap- 
proved of  my  friend's  insisting  upon  the  qualifications  of  a 
good  aspect  and  a  clear  voice ;  for  I  was  so  charmed  with 
the  gracefulness  of  his  figure  and  delivery,  as  well  as  with 
the  discourses  he  pronounced,  that  I  think  I  never  passed 
any  time  more  to  my  satisfaction.  A  sermon  repeated  after 
this  manner  is  like  the  composition  of  a  poet  in  the  mouth 
of  a  graceful  actor."  ^ 

But  to  preach,  as  preaching,  a  discourse  which  we 
acknowledge  to  have  been  borrowed  from  others,  is 
so  incongruous  and  unpleasing  a  thing  as  to  be  very 
rarely  done.  The  real  practice,  with  some  preachers, 
is  still  worse.  They  shrink  from  acknowledging 
what  they  do,  but  still  allow  themselves  to  do  it. 
In  England  this  is  well  known  to  be  very  common. 
It  is  wonderful  how  those  who  boast  of  being  gentle- 

1  Spectator,  No.  io6. 


140    GENERAL  MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 

men  can  practise  an  appropriation  which  is  con- 
demned by  the  guilty  pains  they  take  to  hide  it. 
And  such  a  usage  on  the  part  of  men  who  profess  to 
be  Christians  could  never  have  arisen  save  in  con- 
nection with  radically  wrong  ideas  as  to  the  very 
nature  of  preaching. 

Never  appropriate  without  acknowledgment  the 
complete  outline  of  a  discourse.^  Many  persons  in 
our  country  appear  to  think  this  perfectly  lawful. 
Ludicrous  stories  are  often  told  of  sermons  pursuing 
the  same  train  of  thought  with  one  shortly  before 
preached  at  the  same  place;  and  sometimes  the  real 
author  incurs  the  blame.  But  one  rebukes  himself 
for  being  amused  at  such  stories,  for  they  have  a 
grave  side,  which  is  humiliating.  Does  the  evil  of 
stealing  depend  on  whether  one  is  caught  at  it,  as  the 
Spartans  taught  their  boys }  Shall  a  Christian  minis- 
ter, in  the  very  performance  of  his  solemn  duties, 
deliberately  do  what  he  would  be  ashamed  to  con- 
fess }  Let  any  one  try  the  experiment,  if  he  likes, 
of  acknowledging  that  the  plan  of  his  sermon  is 
derived  from  so  and  so,  and  see  to  what  an  extent, 
save  in  very  peculiar  cases,  it  will  diminish  the 
interest.  The  people  do  not  merely  come  to  hear 
a  discourse,  —  they  come  to  hear  a  living  man,  com- 
municating to  them  his  earnest  thought  and  feeling; 
and  if  the  principal  ideas  of  the  sermon  are  from 
another  preacher,  they  regard  themselves  as  only 
hearing  an  absent  or  dead  man.  If,  then,  it  would 
be  bad  policy  to  proclaim  the  borrowing,  how  can  it 
be  honesty  to  conceal  it.^*  The  power  of  custom, 
including  the  known  practice  of  some  good  men,  the 

1  Dean  Howson  says :  **  If  the  plan  is  your  own,  the  sermon  is 
your  own  in  a  truer  sense,  and  you  are  likely  to  preach  it  with  more 
heart  than  if  you  were  to  take  the  framework  from  some  one  else,  and 
then  fill  in  the  empty  spaces." 


GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     14I 

seductions  of  sloth,  and  the  overwork  to  which  min- 
isters are  often  subjected,  have  wrought  in  many 
minds  a  confusion  of  ideas  on  this  subject,  which 
can  alone  account  for  the  frequent  cases  of  unac- 
knowledged appropriation. 

The  books  of  "Sketches  and  Skeletons,"  which 
are  so  often  published  and  so  widely  bought,  are, 
unless  honestly  and  wisely  used,  an  unmitigated 
evil,  and  a  disgrace  to  the  ministry  of  the  gospeh 
And  it  is  a  fair  question  whether  such  books  can  be 
honestly  and  wisely  used.  For  they  are  likely  to 
prove  a  snare  even  to  those  who  wish  to  be  honest, 
and  are  sure  to  be  a  temptation  to  all  who  use  them 
to  depend  too  much  on  the  suggestions  of  others 
rather  than  on  their  own  thinking.  If  it  be  said 
that  they  may  be  profitably  studied  as  specimens 
of  sermonizing,  there  is  the  obvious  answer  that  it 
would  be  much  more  profitable  to  analyze  for  our- 
selves the  full  sermons  of  really  great  men.  There 
is  no  excuse  for  such  books,  and  no  minister  should 
suffer  one  of  them  to  remain  in  his  library.  But 
they  are  deplorably  common  in  this  country,  and 
still  more  so  in  Germany.^  Nor  is  the  practice  ot 
recent  origin.  As  early  as  15 17,  there  appeared  in 
Paris  a  Latin  volume  of  this  character,  entitled  "  The 
Preacher's  Gem,"  and  styling  itself  ** a  most  excel- 
lent and  divine  work."  And  at  Amsterdam,  in 
1642,  appeared,  "  Dormi  secure :  vel  Cynosura  Profes- 
sorum  ac  Studiosorum  EloqiienticB, "  etc.  (Sleep  without 
Anxiety :  or.  The  Cynosure  of  Professors  and  Students 
of  Eloquence,  etc.)  The  idea  appears  to  be  that 
one  who  possesses  this  book  need  not  have  his  sleep 
disturbed   by  anxiety  about  next  Sunday's  sermon. 

1  The  "  Homiletical "  Notes  in  commentaries  like  those  of  Lange 
and  others  are  too  much  of  this  character,  and  should  be  used  only 
with  great  reserve  and  caution. 


142     GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING. 

Coquerel,  who  mentions  these  two  works,  remarks 
that  it  may  be  doubted  whether  persons  would  awake 
from  this  sleep  to  be  eloquent ;  ^  and  we  may  add  that 
one  who  has  determined  to  borrow  a  plan  from  such 
a  book  should  be  too  much  ashamed  of  himself  to 
sleep  at  all.^ 

But  while  refusing  to  appropriate  a  discourse,  or 
the  outline  of  one,  we  may  with  perfect  propriety 
employ  among  the  general  materials  of  a  discourse 
thoughts  previously  read  or  heard,  provided  we  use 
them  in  a  proper  manner,  and  with  suitable  acknowl- 
edgment; and  these  conditions  will  be  discussed 
presently. 

{b)  After  selecting  the  text  and  subject,  shall  we 
read  about  it } 

If  the  text  is  not  perfectly  plain,  in  itself  and  the 
context,  one  certainly  ought,  at  an  early  period  of 
his  preparation,  to  consult  the  best  explanatory  com- 
mentaries for  help  in  understanding  it. 

Other  books,  such  as  theological  treatises,  ser- 
mons on  the  same  text  or  on  similar  topics,  com- 
mentaries in  the  strict  sense  (those  which  do  not  so 
much  explain  a  text  as  enlarge  upon  its  teachings, 
e.  g.y  Matthew  Henry),  devotional  works,  and  similar 
helps  may  be  read  with  great  profit,  though  we  do  not 
directly  borrow  anything  from  them,  because  they 
will  help  to  fix  the  mind  on  the  subject,  and  often 
suggest  thoughts,  which  will  be  truly  our  own,  and 
yet  would  not  have  occurred  to  us  but  for  the  read- 
ing. "The  water  which  is  poured  into  a  dry  pump 
brings  up  the  deeper  water  of  the  well."  ^ 

1  Coquerel,  Observ.  sur  la  Predication,  p.  204.  On  the  subject  of 
"  Skeletons,"  see  vigorous  remarks  in  Shedd,  Horn.,  pp.  1 16-122. 

2  It  is  by  no  means  designed  to  cast  unmerited  reproach  upon 
some  excellent  ministers  who  have  used  such  books  from  the  force  of 
example,  without  ever  sufficiently  reflecting  upon  the  general  impro- 
priety of  the  practice. 

8  Comp.  above,  §  3. 


GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING.     143 

But  may  we  borrow?  Certainly,  we  may,  and 
sometimes  ought  to  borrow.  There  are  two  ex- 
tremes. On  the  one  hand,  a  mistaken  desire  for 
originality  and  independence  causes  some  able  men 
to  abstain  from  reading  anything  on  the  text  or  sub- 
ject. Such  a  man  deceives  himself,  for  many  of  the 
thoughts  which  his  own  mind  now  furnishes  were 
originally  derived  from  reading  or  hearing.  True, 
these  are  more  likely  to  have  been  digested  and 
assimilated  than  what  is  read  just  at  the  time  of 
preparation.  But  this  difference  does  not  neces- 
sarily hold,  for  many  thoughts  are  long  retained  by 
the  memory  in  a  perfectly  crude  state,  and  what 
results  from  reading  at  the  time  should  not  be  used 
until  after  thoroughly  working  it  over  in  our  own 
mind.  And  besides  this  self-deception,  he  deprives 
himself  of  what  would  often  prove  valuable  help  in 
contemplating  the  subject  on  every  side,  and  pre- 
senting it  in  the  most  effective  manner.  The  other 
extreme  is  that  of  reading  instead  of  thinking,  just 
cramming  the  mind  with  a  medley  of  other  men's 
thoughts,  and  constructing  a  discourse  out  of  these.  ^ 
Such  a  method  of  preparation,  though  often  adopted, 
is  exceedingly  objectionable.  But  can  we  avoid  the 
latter  extreme  only  by  rushing  to  the  former.? 

There  is  surely  a  middle  course.  We  may  both 
think  and  read.  On  most  texts  and  subjects  think 
long  and  laboriously  before  reading  at  all  (except  it 
be  the  commentaries  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  text). 
Put  down  in  writing  some  statement  of  your  prin- 
cipal thoughts,  and  make  out  the  plan  of  the  dis- 
course. Afterwards,  read  whatever  bears  upon  the 
subject,  as  far  as  you  have  time,  or  see  occasion, 

1  Pascal  has  somewhere  a  fine  sarcasm  to  the  effect  that  when  a 
preacher  of  this  sort  says  **  we,"  he  means  himself  and  the  man  from 
whom  he  has  stolen. 


144    GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING. 

and  in  reading,  think  for  yourself  still,  not  only 
weighing  carefully  what  the  author  says,  but  follow- 
ing out  any  trains  of  thought  which  he  may  suggest 
to  your  own  mind.  On  some  subjects,  concerning 
which  we  lack  information^  it  may  be  well  to  read 
widely  before  constructing  the  plan  of  the  sermon. 
But  one  will  not  often  determine  to  preach  upon  a 
subject,  until  he  has  gained  some  general  knowledge 
of  it.  And  now  if  we  have  found  an  idea,  or  remem- 
ber one  formerly  met  with,  which  can  be  easily 
wrought  into  our  plan  of  discourse,  and  which  would 
make  the  sermon  more  instructive,  interesting,  or 
impressive,  why,  let  us  use  it, — of  course  with  proper 
acknowledgment.  The  question  is,  which  will  be 
best,  on  the  one  hand  for  your  general  improvement 
as  a  preacher,  and  on  the  other  for  the  effectiveness 
of  the  present  sermon,  that  you  should  use  this  idea, 
or  should  omit  it. 

Everything  thus  borrowed  must  have  been  fully 
comprehended,  and  must  take  its  place  naturally 
as  a  part  of  the  discourse.  A  discourse  is  a  struc- 
ture, and  extraneous  matters  which  do  not  fit  into 
it  and  subserve  its  objects  will,  however  admirable 
in  themselves,  be  offensive  and  hurtful,  as  would 
be  such  additions  to  a  dwelling-house  or  a  steam- 
engine. 

(2)  In  what  cases,  and  in  what  ways,  shall  one 
make  acknowledgment  of  having  borrowed } 

When  the  remark  is  obvious,  or  belongs  to  the 
common  stock  of  religious  ideas,  so  that  it  might 
have  occurred  to  ourselves,  although  it  happens  to 
have  been  drawn  from  another,  then  it  is  often 
unnecessary  to  make  any  acknowledgment.  When 
the  idea  is  at  all  striking,  so  that  hearers  would  give 
any  special  credit  for  it  as  a  good  thing,  then  we 
must  not  take  a  credit  which  is  undeserved,  but  must 


GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING.     145 

in  some  way  indicate  that  the  thought  was  derived 
from  another. 

In  what  cases  shall  we  mention  the  precise  source } 
When  the  author's  name  would  give  greater  weight 
to  the  idea,  or  in  some  way  attach  interest  to  it ;  for 
example,  Bacon  or  Bunyan,  Whitefield  or  Spurgeon. 
Again,  when  we  may  hope  thereby  to  lead  some 
hearer  to  read  the  book  m-entioned.  Or  generally, 
when  to  name  the  source  would  do  any  good.  It  is 
well  to  be  sure  that  one  can  pronounce  the  author's 
name  correctly,  or  else  to  omit  it.  Many  French 
and  German  names  occur  in  our  religious  literature, 
and  many  hearers  know  enough  of  those  languages 
to  make  the  effect  quite  bad,  if  the  preacher  ludi- 
crously mispronounces  them. 

Otherwise  it  is  enough  merely  to  indicate  that  the 
thought  was  derived  from  some  source.  Avoid  a 
parade  of  honesty  about  acknowledging.  Avoid, 
too,  an  ostentatious  display  of  wide  reading.  Let 
the  acknowledgment  interrupt  as  little  as  possible 
the  flow  of  thought,  —  detract  as  little  as  possible 
from  the  interest  which  the  idea  is  likely  to  awaken. 
If  it  would  decidedly  interrupt  or  detract,  then  omit 
the  acknowledgment,  —  and  the  thing  borrowed.  In 
general,  the  method  of  acknowledging  calls  for  the 
exercise  of  judgment  and  good  taste.  Without  for- 
mality or  set  phrases,  and  with  graceful  simplicity, 
state,  indicate,  or  even  merely  intimate,  that  the 
idea  was  derived  from  some  other  person. 

It  is  certainly  important  that  on  the  whole  subject 
of  borrowing,  one  should  have  just  principles;  and 
that  he  should  early  in  life  establish  such  principles, 
and  form  correct  habits  from  the  beginning.  Other- 
wise, there  will  either  be  a  wrong  practice  continued 
through  life,  with  very  injurious  results  to  a  man's 
character  and  influence,  or,  when  he  comes  to  see 


146    GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING. 

more  clearly,  there  will  be  much  to  regret  in  his 
past  course.  Professor  Phelps  truly  says:^  "A 
young  man  has  gained  one  of  the  prime  elements  of 
scholarship  when  he  has  learned  the  worth  of  art- 
lessness  in  his  literary  dealings  with  himself.  Play 
no  tricks  upon  yourself.  Do  not  be  hoodwinked  into 
an  imitation  of  the  tricks  of  authors.  Be  honest  in 
your  secret  literary  habits.  Keep  yourself  always 
on  the  safe  side  of  plagiarism  in  your  sermons.  Be 
assured  that  you  will  plagiarize  unconsciously  quite 
as  much  as  is  consistent  with  the  rights  of  author- 
ship. As  a  specimen  of  the  care  which  should  be 
practised  in  this  respect,  if  you  quote  in  your  ser- 
mon, see  to  it  that  you  put  the  signs  of  quotation 
into  your  delivery  as  well  as  into  your  manuscript. 
.  .  .  There  is  such  a  thing  as  intellectual  integrity. 
The  price  of  it  is  above  rubies." 

§  5.    FRESHNESS  IN  PREACHING  —  HELPS. 

This  is  perhaps  as  good  a  place  as  any  to  consider 
the  topics  of  freshness  and  sensation  in  preaching, 
for  though  they  have  obvious  relation  to  the  matters 
of  style  and  delivery,  they  are  even  more  intimately 
connected  with  the  choice  of  subjects  and  the  hand- 
ling of  materials  of  discourse. 

The  value  of  freshness  in  preaching  may  be  exag- 
gerated by  some,  and  there  is  need  to  check  the  pas- 
sion for  novelty.  The  basis  of  preaching  and  the 
truth  preached  must  be  ever  the  same.  Yet  there 
is  a  freshness  in  the  treatment  of  old  truths,  and 
in  discoursing  on  the  unchangeable  basis  of  God's 
Word,  that  is  eminently  desirable  and  should  be 
maintained  through  life.  Some  suggestions  on  how 
to  maintain  this  freshness  may  be  useful. 

1  Men  and  Books,  p.  199. 


GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING.     147 

(i)  Study  the  Scriptures.  Earnest  and  continued 
study  both  of  the  Bible  in  general,  and  of  each  text 
in  particular,  will  greatly  enhance  and  sustain  a 
preacher's  freshness.  Let  him,  as  before  urged, 
seek  not  mere  novelties  and  fancies  in  interpreta- 
tion, but  the  exact  meaning  of  the  inspired  Word. 
No  matter  how  often  he  has  studied  the  book  or  the 
text  before,  let  him  keep  on,  and  new  thoughts  will 
be  suggested  A  man  cannot  fail  to  keep  fresh  in 
his  preaching  who  continues  through  life  really  and 
properly  to  study  the  Word  of  God. 

(2)  Study  theology.  Keep  in  touch  with  the  great 
books,  both  general  treatises  and  special  discussions, 
on  Systematic  Theology.  Doctrine  —  real  doctrine 
—  is  needed  as  a  novelty  in  much  of  the  preaching 
of  our  times.  By  all  means  should  a  man  reflect 
profoundly  upon  the  commonplaces  of  religious  truth. 
Vinet  well  said  that  the  basis  of  eloquence  is  com- 
monplace; and  another  has  remarked  that  the  pul- 
pit often  "makes  the  mistake  of  giving  us  common 
thoughts  about  deep  things,  when  what  we  need 
would  be  deep  thoughts  about  common  things." 
We  get  these  deep  thoughts  about  common  things 
only  by  penetrating  and  persevering  reflection. 

(3)  Study  occasions.  Here,  again,  we  should  not 
be  directly  seeking  freshness  in  itself,  but  the 
reality  of  things.  The  best  freshness  is  found  by 
simply  seeking  real  adaptation  to  the  real  occasion. 
Study  the  general  condition  of  the  congregation; 
reflect  upon  all  special  occurrences  of  religious 
interest,  and  upon  any  of  secular  interest  that  may 
furnish  illustration  or  call  for  passing  application 
or  remark.  Whenever  you  repeat  a  sermon  on  a 
new  occasion  carefully  adjust  it  in  your  study  before- 
hand to  the  new  conditions.  A  sermon  that  suits 
equally  well  all  occasions  does  not  thoroughly  suit 


148    GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING. 

any  one  of  them.     This  adaptation  to  circumstances 
often  depends  upon  apparently  slight  matters. 

(4)  Study  individual  cases.  Physicians  and  law- 
yers may  set  us  here  a  valuable  lesson.  The  wise 
preacher  will  know  people  individually,  and  how  to 
apply  the  truth  to  their  special  needs.  He  may 
thus  have  the  advantage  of  the  Romish  confessional 
without  its  grave  objections.  Sometimes  a  hint  in 
conversation  will  be  a  rich  germ  of  suggestion.  No 
man  can  keep  fresh  in  the  pulpit  without  keeping  up 
both  spiritual  and  social  contact  with  the  people. 

(5)  Study  the  age  in  which  we  live.  Let  the 
preacher  strive  to  understand  the  strength  and  the 
weakness  of  the  age  —  its  healthy  tendencies  and  its 
diseases  —  its  illusions  and  its  well-founded  hopes. 
Particularly  should  he  endeavor  to  discover  and  pro- 
claim the  true  relations  of  Christianity  to  the  age  — 
what  it  needs  from  Christianity,  and  what  Chris- 
tianity needs  from  it.  Its  currents  of  thought  and 
sentiment,  religious  and  irreligious  —  its  difficul- 
ties and  yearnings  —  its  movements  and  changes  — 
demand  the  thoughtful  attention  of  the  gospel 
preacher.  Yet  he  should  let  the  fruits  of  his  study 
and  reflection  appear  not  so  much  in  formal  discus- 
sions through  set  discourses,  as  in  apt  allusion  and 
application  here  and  there  in  his  ordinary  sermons. 
Thus  he  may  be  constantly  showing  how  truly  Chris- 
tianity meets  all  real  human  wants;  and  thus  he  may 
restrain  and  fortify  his  hearers  without  perplexing 
them  with  plausible  errors.  Excellence  in  preach- 
ing, like  the  truly  excellent  in  literature  and  art, 
must  either  take  hold  of  things  present,  even  tran- 
sient things,  and  penetrate  through  them  to  perma- 
nent eternal  principles ;  or,  if  it  begins  with  general 
principles,  it  must  always  bring  them  to  bear  upon 
living  characters  and  actual  wants. 


GENERAL   MATERIALS   OF   PREACHING.     149 

(6)  Study  yourself .  A  man  should  continue  through 
life  to  learn  from  his  mistakes.  Certainly  the  young 
preacher  should  do  this,  and  even  more  imperatively 
the  elder.  Never  fall  into  stereotyped  methods  of 
treating  your  subjects;  cherish  and  cultivate  a  rest- 
less longing  to  preach  better^  and  try  frequent  experi- 
ments in  preaching  differently.  There  is  among 
preachers  a  deal  of  latent  power  which  never  gets 
itself  developed.  By  all  means  should  the  invent- 
ive faculty  be  kept  healthy  and  active.  Some  one 
has  said,  "Attention  is  the  mother  of  invention." 
Fasten  the  mind  on  your  subject  by  resolute  effort 
of  the  will,  and  compel  yourself  to  the  task  of  anal- 
ysis and  association  of  ideas,  which  are  the  princi- 
pal parts  of  invention.  This  may  also  be  greatly 
stimulated  by  reading  and  conversation.  And  let 
us  remember  that  our  very  best,  our  richest  inven- 
tion, is  not  achieved  in  preparing  next  Sunday's 
sermons,  but  in  general  reading,  conversation,  re- 
flection, when  the  mind  is  quiet,  throws  off  its 
accustomed  burdens,  and  springs  up  elastic.  All 
the  labor  and  thought  thus  bestowed  in  cultivating 
and  maintaining  freshness  will  be  richly  repaid  many 
times  over  in  sustained  power  and  usefulness  in  the 
pulpit. 

§  6.     SENSATIONAL  PREACHING  —  CAUTIONS. 

There  is,  however,  a  marked  difference  between 
freshness  and  sensation  in  preaching.  In  trying  to 
be  fresh,  preachers  sometimes  succeed  only  in  being 
sensational.  Pertinency  and  timeliness  in  the  appli- 
cation of  Christian  truth  to  the  real  present  life  and 
its  grave  problems  are  supremely  important,  but 
ministering  to  the  prurient  curiosity  of  the  excited 
crowd,  assailing  men  and  measures  with  cheap  and 


ISO    GENERAL   MATERIALS    OF   PREACHING. 

unseemly  invective,  spending  valuable  time  and 
strength  in  discussing  mere  side  issues  which  have 
been  unduly  exaggerated  for  the  time  being  into 
momentous  concerns, — this  is  sensationalism.  It 
is  true  that  in  this  whole  matter  discrimination  is 
both  necessary  and  difficult.  A  man  is  not  likely 
to  think  himself  sensational,  —  he  is  only  keeping 
up  with  the  times;  the  ranter  around  the  corner  is 
the  blatant  sensationalist !  Each  man  is  thus  a  law 
unto  himself,  —  only  let  him  be  most  careful  that 
there  is  some  law  in  the  case.  Several  safeguards 
against  improper  sensationalism  in  the  pulpit  should 
be  noted. 

(i)  Sound  Biblical  preaching.  That  thorough 
study  of  God's  Word,  which  has  been  urged  as  a 
help  to  freshness,  may  be,  at  the  same  time,  an 
excellent  preventive  of  undue  sensation.  A  man 
who  is  truly  intent  on  discovering  from  the  Scrip- 
tures the  mind  and  will  of  God,  and  bringing 
these  to  bear  on  the  questions  of  his  time,  is  not 
likely  to  err  greatly  in  the  direction  of  an  unholy 
opportunism. 

(2)  Earnest  desire  to  win  and  save  men.  There 
is  here  a  subtle  danger  which  needs  the  most  watch- 
ful care.  Sensational  methods  are  often  excused  on 
this  plea,  and  there  is  real  danger  of  self-deception. 
It  may  be  easy  for  some  preachers  to  persuade  them- 
selves that  they  are  seeking  to  attract  men  and  bring 
the  gospel  to  them,  when  they  are,  if  they  only  knew 
it,  largely  influenced  by  the  lower  motive  of  love  of 
applause,  or,  worse  yet,  of  notoriety.  If  there  is 
the  least  trace  of  these  in  a  preacher,  let  him  humbly 
implore  the  Lord  to  cast  this  demon  out;  let  him 
search  his  heart  with  all  candor,  and  assure  himself 
that  his  longing  for  the  salvation  of  men  is,  next  to 
the  love  of  Christ,  the  great  motive  of  his  preaching. 


GENERAL  MATERIALS   OF  PREACHING.     151 

As  this  motive  grows  and  dominates  in  his  work, 
he  will  more  and  more  escape  the  sinful  folly  of 
sensationalism. 

{3)  Good  taste.  Even  the  most  earnest  and  suc- 
cessful preaching  is  sometimes  such,  despite,  and 
never  because  of,  bad  taste.  And  no  man  can  be 
his  own  sole  judge  in  matters  of  taste.  He  must 
consider  his  church,  and  the  community  in  which 
he  lives.  Now  with  different  churches  and  com- 
munities tastes  also  differ,  and  a  preacher  in  going 
from  one  charge  to  another,  should  try  to  find  out 
the  standards  of  taste  prevalent  about  him,  and  adapt 
himself  in  a  reasonable  degree  to  their  requirements. 
No  man  can  be  long  or  really  useful  in  any  com- 
munity whose  taste  he  offends  in  his  preaching. 
He  may  shock  and  startle,  and  even  draw  large 
crowds;  but  he  will  also  annoy  and  repel,  and  good 
people  will  grow  weary  of  him.  Consultation  with 
judicious  friends  of  both  sexes,  and  a  reasonable 
and  manly  deference  to  their  opinions,  will  enable 
the  preacher  to  keep  within  the  bounds  of  good  taste 
without  losing  anybody's  respect,  and  without  sacri- 
ficing one  element  of  real  timeliness  and  power  in 
his  preaching. 


152     SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  —  EXPLANATION. 


§  I.  Explanation  in  General. 
2.  Explanation   of  Texts,   in- 
cluding Exegesis,  Narra- 
tion, AND  Description. 


§  3.  Explanation  of  Subjects, 
including  Definition,  Di- 
vision, Exemplification, 
Comparison. 


THE  materials  of  preaching  are  obviously  bound- 
less. To  collect  in  general,  by  observation, 
reading,  and  reflection,  and  then  to  select  and  adapt 
to  the  design  of  each  particular  discourse,  is  the 
preacher's  great  task.  And  not  only  the  character 
of  the  materials,  but  the  method  of  handling  them, 
must  vary  indefinitely,  according  to  the  design  of  the 
sermon.  But  certain  special  classes  of  materials  are 
of  such  importance,  and  their  proper  treatment  of 
such  difficulty,  as  to  justify  a  separate  discussion. ' 
The  classes  here  selected  for  that  purpose,  and 
treated  in  successive  chapters,  are  the  materials  of 
Explanation,  of  Proof,  of  Illustration,  and  of  Appli- 
cation. This  is  not  presented  as  a  scientific  classi- 
fication of  materials.  It  by  no  means  embraces  all, 
and  its  departments  sometimes  overlap.  Thus  illus- 
tration may  be  employed  to  explain,  to  prove,  or  to 
impress ;  application  may  embrace  explanation,  proof, 
and  persuasion;  and  certain  processes  which  are 
always  classed  under  explanation,  as  narration  and 
description,  are  often  used  at  the  same  time,  and  even 
mainly,  for  other  than  explanatory  ends.  But  it  is 
thought  that  a  scientific  classification  would  here  be 
less  useful  than  the   practical  discussion  of  certain 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION.      153 

leading  objects  according  to  which  the  preacher  must 
invent  and  handle  his  materials.^ 


§   I.    EXPLANATION  IN   GENERAL. 

There  is  in  preaching  very  frequent  need  of  Expla* 
nation.  Numerous  passages  of  Scripture  are  not  un- 
derstood, or  are  even  misunderstood,  by  our  hearers ; 
and  many  have  become  so  accustomed  to  passing 
over  these  as  to  be  no  longer  aware  that  they  present 
any  difficulty.  Some  of  the  most  important  doctrines 
of  the  Bible  are  in  general  very  imperfectly  under- 
stood ;  those  who  receive  them  need  clearer  views  of 
what  they  profess  to  believe,  and  those  who  object  to 
them  are  often  in  fact  objecting  to  something  very 
different  from  the  real  doctrine.  The  plan  of  salva- 
tion is  seldom  comprehended  till  one  is  really  willing 
to  conform  to  it,  so  that  there  is  constantly  arising 
new  occasion  for  answering  the  great  question,  "  What 
must  I  do  to  be  saved?  "  And  a  thousand  questions 
as  to  what  is  true  and  what  is  right  in  the  practical 
conduct  of  life  perplex  devout  minds,  and  call  for 
explanation.  Preaching  ought  to  be  not  merely  con* 
vincing  and  persuasive,  but  eminently  instructive. 
We  often  belabor  men  with  arguments  and  appeals, 
when  they  are  much  more  in  need  of  practical  and 
simple  explanations,  as  regards  what  to  do,  and  how 
to  do  it.  And  while  some  persons  present  may  have 
repeatedly  heard  us  explain  certain  important  mat- 
ters, we  must  not  forget  that  there  are  others,  children 
growing  up,  strangers  moving  in,  converts  entering 

1  A  full  and  in  general  valuable  discussion  of  Invention  may  "be 
found  in  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  pp.  42-207.  He  classifies  materials 
according  to  the  four  objects  of  explanation,  confirmation,  excitation, 
and  persuasion.  His  treatment  of  Explanation  is  the  most  elaborate 
in  existence  (pp.  57-1 11),  and  although  too  formal  in  some  respects,  it 
will  be  found  instructive  and  suggestive.    See  also  Vinet,  pp.  153-169. 


154     SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION. 

the  church,  to  whom  such  explanations  will  be  new, 
and  are  in  the  highest  degree  necessary. 

But  just  here  the  inexperienced  minister  may 
profit  by  several  homely  cautions.  Do  not  attempt 
to  explain  what  is  not  assuredly  true.  One  sometimes 
finds  great  difficulty  in  working  out  an  explanation  of 
a  supposed  fact  or  principle,  because  it  is  really  not 
true.  Do  not  undertake  to  explain  what  you  do  not 
understand.  Oh  the  insufferable  weariness  of  listen- 
ing to  a  man  who  does  this !  And  in  preaching  as 
well  as  elsewhere,  it  happens  so  often  as  to  be  ridicu- 
lous, if  it  were  not  mournful.  How  can  the  house- 
wife cook  what  has  never  been  caught?  How  can 
the  preacher  explain  what  he  does  not  understand? 
Never  try  to  explain  what  cannot  be  explained.  Some 
things  taught  in  the  Bible  are  in  their  essence  in- 
comprehensible ;  as,  for  example,  the  nature  of  the 
Trinity,  or  the  coexistence  of  absolute  divine  predes- 
tination with  human  freedom  and  accountability.  In 
such  a  case  it  is  very  important  to  explain  just  what 
the  Scriptures  really  do  teach,  so  as  to  remove  mis- 
apprehensions ;  and  it  may  sometimes  be  worth  while 
to  present  any  remote  analogies  in  other  spheres  of 
existence,  so  as  perhaps  to  diminish  the  hearer's  un- 
willingness to  receive  the  doctrine ;  but  attempts  to 
explain  the  essential  difficulty  must  necessarily  fail, 
and  the  failure  will  react  so  as  only  to  strengthen 
doubt  and  opposition.  Do  not  waste  time  in  explain- 
ing what  does  not  need  explanation}  A  conspicuous 
instance  is  the  nature  of  faith.  Men  frequently  com- 
plain that  they  do  not  understand  what  it  really  is  to 
believe,  and  preachers  are  constantly  laboring  to  ex- 
plain. But  the  complaint  is  in  many  cases  a  mere 
excuse  for  rejection  or  delay,  and  the  real  difficulty 
is  in  all  cases  a  lack  of  disposition  to  believe.  Elab- 
1  Comp.  Vinet,  Horn.  p.  i66. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION.    155 

orate  explanations  do  not  lessen  this  indisposition,  do 
but  strengthen  the  supposed  excuse,  and  may  even 
embarrass  the  anxious  inquirer  with  the  notion  that 
there  is  something  very  mysterious  about  faith,  when 
it  is  in  fact  so  simple  as  not  to  admit  of  being  ex- 
plained. Our  main  duty  is  to  tell  the  people  what  to 
believe,  and  why  they  should  believe  it. 

§  2.    EXPLANATION  OF  TEXTS. 

To  explain  the  Scriptures  would  seem  to  be  among 
the  primary  functions  of  the  preacher.^  And  there 
will  often  be  occasion  to  explain,  not  merely  the  text 
of  the  sermon,  but  various  other  passages  of  Scripture 
which  may  be  introduced  into  the  discussion.  The 
power  of  making  such  explanations  attractive,  as 
well  as  clear,  will  of  course  depend  largely  upon  the 
preacher's  turn  of  mind.  But  the  most  gifted  in  re- 
spect of  this  important  task  should  seek  constant 
improvement,  and  they  who  have  great  difficulty 
must  put  forth  diligent  and  hopeful  efforts  to  over- 
come it.  What  nobler  work  is  there  than  that  of 
"  opening "  the  Scriptures,  as  Paul  did  at  Thessalo- 
nica?    (Acts  xvii.  3.) 

The  exegesis  of  texts,  as  the  process  by  which 
the  preacher  himself  comes  to  understand  them,  has 
already  received  our  attention.^  Pulpit  exegesis,  or 
exposition,  is  in  certain  respects  a  different  thing. 
We  have  here,  save  in  exceptional  cases,  to  present 
results  and  not  processes.  We  must  omit  various 
matters,  which  have  perhaps  greatly  interested  our- 
selves, because  they  would  not  interest  the  people,  or 
do  not  pertain  to  the  object  of  the  present  discourse. 
Preachers  sometimes  allow  themselves,  in  the  intro- 
duction to  the  sermon  or  as  a  digression,  to  give  long 

1  Comp.  on  Expos.  Sermons,  Part  II.  chap.  iii. 

2  Above,  chap.  ii.    Comp.  Hervey's  Christian  Rhetoric,  p.  202. 


156     SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION. 

explanations  of  something  in  a  passage,  or  its  connec- 
tion, which  has  no  bearing  on  their  subject  and  thus 
impairs  unity  and  distracts  attention.  There  must  of 
course  be  no  parade  of  acquaintance  with  the  original 
languages,  and  there  should  be  no  morbid  fear  of 
being  charged  with  such  parade.  Commentaries  may- 
be mentioned  if  the  people  know  something  of  them, 
and  would  thereby  be  more  readily  satisfied,  or  if  it 
is  desirable  to  bring  good  popular  authors  to  their 
notice.  To  repeat  lists  of  strange  and  high-sounding 
names  in  favor  of  this  or  that  interpretation,  is  always 
useless,  and  is  in  general  a  very  pitiful  display  of 
cheap  erudition,  which  with  the  help  of  certain  books 
may  all  be  gotten  up  at  second  hand  in  a  few  minutes. 
One  may  very  easily  indicate,  without  any  array  of 
authorities,  that  this  is  the  view  of  the  best  writers,  of 
some  good  commentators,  etc.  The  great  matter  is, 
to  take  the  results  of  the  most  careful  investigation  in 
our  power,  select  from  them  such  points  as  are  appro- 
priate, and  present  these  clearly,  briefly,  and  if  pos- 
sible in  such  a  way  as  to  be  interesting.  Sometimes 
the  text,  or  another  passage  introduced,  may  be 
amply  and  admirably  explained  by  a  few  words ;  but 
such  words  do  not  come  of  themselves,  —  they  result 
from  close  thinking,  and  careful  choice  of  expressions. 
Sometimes  passages  may  be  introduced  in  such  a 
connection,  as  without  a  word  of  explanation  to  give 
them  new  meaning  and  preciousness.  It  is  a  fault  in 
many  able  ministers,  that  they  comparatively  neglect 
to  bring  in  and  explain  the  apposite  sayings  of  Scrip- 
ture which  would  both  give  and  borrow  light.  And 
however  congregations  may  shrink  from  elaborate 
exegesis  or  bungling  and  tedious  attempts  to  explain, 
they  will  always  welcome  the  felicitous  introduction, 
and  quick,  vivid  elucidation  of  passages  from  God's 
Word. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION.      1 5/ 

Narration  has  in  preaching  a  peculiar  character. 
Recent  works  on  Rhetoric  treat  of  it  almost  exclu- 
sively as  practised  in  historical  writing  and  the  like.^ 
Ancient  writers  treat  of  oratorical  narration,  and  are 
therefore  more  valuable  for  our  purpose,^  though 
relating  chiefly  to  the  narrative  in  judicial  oratory. 
The  preacher  of  course  narrates  as  a  speaker,  and 
deals  mainly  with  Scripture  history.  A  speaker  must 
always  subordinate  narration  to  the  object  of  his  dis- 
course, the  conviction  or  persuasion  which  he  wishes 
to  effect.^  He  must  not  elaborate  or  enlarge  upon 
some  narrative  merely  because  in  itself  interesting, 
nor  follow  the  story  step  by  step,  according  to  its 
own  laws.  "  In  demonstrative  speeches  the  narra- 
tion is  not  continuous,  but  given  in  scattered  por- 
tions; for  one  must  go  over  the  actions  out  of 
which  the  speech  arises ;  for  a  speech  is  a  kind  of 
compound,  having  one  portion,  indeed,  independent 
of  art,  and  another  portion  originating  in  art."  That 
is,  the  facts  are  independent  of  the  speaker,  but  he 
breaks  them  up  and  presents  them  according  to  his 
object.  "  Owing  to  this,  there  are  times  when  one 
ought  not  to  narrate  every  fact  successively ;  because 
this  mode  of  exposition  is  difficult  to  remember. 
The  one  style  of  narration  is  too  simple ;  the  other 
has  the  grace  of  variety,  and  is  not  so  void  of  ele- 
gance. But  what  you  have  to  do  is  to  awaken  the 
recollection  of  facts  well  known;  on  which  account 
many  subjects  will  stand  in  no  need  of  narration  — 
supposing,  for  instance,  you  would  praise  Achilles, 
because  all  are  acquainted  with  his  actions  —  but  you 

1  Thus,  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  and  Bain's  Rhetoric,  each  of  which 
contains  a  good  discussion  from  that  point  of  view. 

2  Particularly  Arist.  Rhet.  III.  i6,  and  Quintil.  IV.  2,  which  will 
be  found  very  suggestive, 

8  Narratio  est  rei  factas  .  .  .  utilis  ad  persuadendum  expositio, 
Quintil.  IV.  2,  31. 


158     SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION. 

must  simply  use  the  actions  without  narration.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  one  wishes  to  praise  Critias,  it  is 
necessary  to  narrate;  for  not  many  are  acquainted 
with  his  exploits."  ^ 

And  so  when  we  preach  with  reference  to  the 
minor  and  less  familiar  personages  of  Scripture,  it 
is  proper  enough  to  narrate  all  the  facts  concerning 
them.  But  when  it  is  one  of  the  great  characters  we 
must  choose  between  two  courses.  We  may  select 
the  salient  or  characteristic  points  of  his  history,  and 
so  narrate  these  as  to  exhibit  the  chief  lessons  of 
that  history,  introducing  such  details  as  are  to  the 
purpose,  and  rigorously  omitting  all  others.  Thus 
the  history  of  Joseph,  of  Job,  of  John  the  Baptist, 
may  be  conveniently  treated.  In  such  a  case,  every 
speaker  will  mention  or ,  enlarge  upon  different  parts 
of  the  history,  according  to  his  particular  object ;  as 
Stephen's  speech,  and  that  of  Paul  at  Antioch  in 
Pisidia,  sketch  very  differently  the  history  of  Israel ; 
and  as  Paul  in  the  two  speeches  which  tell  the  story 
of  his  conversion,  expands  in  each  of  them  certain 
matters  which  in  the  other  are  but  slightly  touched, 
adapting  the  narration  to  the  character  and  wants 
of  his  audience.2  But  it  is  generally  better  to  choose 
some  one  event  of  the  man's  history,  or  some  one 
trait  of  his  character,  and  narrate  only  what  bears 
upon  that.  In  preaching  upon  the  meekness  of 
Moses,  there  would  be  occasion  to  state  briefly 
those  circumstances  of  his  training  and  career  which 
were  particularly  unfavorable  to  the  development  of 
meekness,  and  then  to  narrate,  with  vivid  touches,  the 
leading  instances  in  which  his  meekness  was  exhib- 
ited, as  well  as  those  in  which  it  temporarily  failed ; 

1  Arist.  Rhet.  III.  16,  1-3. 

2  Comp.  Acts,  chap.  vii.  with  chap,  xiii.,  and  chap.  xxii.  with  chap 
xxvi. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION.      1 59 

and  the  discourse  would  properly  close  with  a  some- 
what extended  application  of  the  whole  matter  to 
ourselves.  In  this  way  the  history  of  Moses  would 
be  much  more  impressively  reproduced,  than  if  one 
should  attempt  an  outline  of  the  whole. 

Narration  is  usually  given  in  the  introduction  to 
the  sermon.  In  so  doing  special  pains  should  be 
taken  not  to  have  it  too  long,  not  to  wander  into 
parts  of  the  story  which  have  no  bearing  upon  the 
design  of  the  discourse,  and  not  to  pause,  except 
in  very  rare  cases,  for  remarks  upon  outside  topics 
which  the  narrative  may  suggest.  There  is  espe- 
cial danger  here  of  violating  the  laws  of  unity  and 
proportion. 

Besides  the  instances  in  which  some  history  in  the 
Bible  is  our  theme,  there  will  be  constant  occasion  to 
derive  illnstratiojt  from  Scripture  history,  and  great 
demand  for  skill  in  the  brief  and  interesting  narration 
of  events  thus  employed.  Happy  the  preacher  who 
can  in  this  way  keep  ever  fresh  in  the  minds  of  his 
hearers  those  beautiful  and  sacred  stories,  which  are 
not  only  sweet  to  the  heart  of  childhood  and  full  of 
instruction  to  youth,  but  which,  when  rightly  con- 
templated, assume  new  interest  and  meaning  at  every 
stage  of  hfe. 

It  is  a  rather  common  fault  in  the  pulpit  to  narrate 
in  a  declamatory  way.  The  preacher  has  become 
excited,  and  he  states  a  plain  fact,  or  tells  a  simple 
story,  with  such  vehemence  and  boisterousness  as  to 
be  extremely  incongruous.  Quintilian  keenly  satir- 
izes those  who  think  it  beneath  their  dignity  to  set 
forth  facts  in  every-day  language,  who  do  not  seem 
to  themselves  eloquent,  unless  they  have  thrown 
everything  into  agitation  by  boisterous  vociferation, 
and  instead  of  simply  narrating,  imagine  that  they 
have  here  a  field  for  showing  off,  and  "  inflect  the 


l60     SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION. 

voice,  set  back  the  neck,  and  fling  the  arm  against 
the  side,  and  riot  in  every  variety  of  ideas,  words, 
and  style."  ^     Let  us  learn  the  lesson.^ 

Description  is  usually  a  necessary  part  of  narra- 
tion, separate  scenes  of  the  narrative  being  to  some 
extent  described.  There  is  also  frequent  occasion  to 
describe  Scripture  scenes  apart  from  their  connection 
in  the  narrative,  as  in  the  introduction  to  a  sermon, 
in  the  employment  of  historical  illustrations  from 
Scripture,  etc.  And  while  we  speak  here  of  narra- 
tion and  description  only  as  regards  the  events  and 
scenes  of  the  Bible  history,  it  is  obvious  that  the 
same  skill  may  be  applied  to  that  great  variety  of 
illustrative  matter  from  every  other  source,  which 
must  be  vividly  narrated  or  described  in  order  to 
make  any  impression.  A  leading  American  preacher 
has  said  that  "  he  who  would  hold  the  ear  of  the  peo- 
ple, must  either  tell  stories,  or  paint  pictures."  ^ 

Power  of  description  is  of  course  partly  a  natural 
gift;  but  many  intelligent  men  will  marvel  and  lament 
that  they  cannot  describe,  when  they  have  never 
fairly  tried  —  never  given  themselves  any  general 
training  in  that  respect,  nor  ever  really  studied  any 
one  scene  or  object  which  they  attempted  to  describe. 
Such  men  are  aware  that  they  cannot  work  out  an 
argument  without  much  previous  thought,  but  seem 
not  aware  that  corresponding  effort  is  necessary  in 
order  to  achieve  a  good  description. 

He  who  would  describe  anything,  must  have  seen 
it ;  not  necessarily  with  bodily  vision,  but  with  the 
mind's  eye.  He  must  begin,  then,  with  gaining 
correct  information  about  the  scene  or  object ;  and 

1  Quintil.  IV.  2,  37-39. 

2  As  to  narration  in  preaching,  comp.  on  Historical  Subjects,  chap. 
iii.  §  3,  and  on  Expository  Sermons,  Part  II.  chap.  iii. 

8  H.  W.  Beecher.  There  is  an  interesting  chapter  on  "  Word- 
painting"  in  Potter's  Spoken  Word,  p.  210  ff. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION.     l6l 

this  information  must  extend,  if  possible,  to  details. 
As  regards  Scripture  scenes,  there  is  often  need  of 
a  familiar  acquaintance  with  Biblical  Geography,  and 
with  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  Jews.  While 
gathering  such  information,  and  after  doing  so,  he 
must  fasten  his  mind  upon  the  scene,  so  that  the 
imagination  may  realize  it;  he  must  look  at  it  as  he 
would  at  a  landscape  or  a  painting,  first  surveying 
the  whole,  then  inspecting  the  most  interesting 
details,  and  afterwards  comprising  all  in  a  general 
view.  This  should  be  kept  up,  with  the  point  of 
view  varied,  and  with  repeated  effort  to  imagine, 
till  the  whole  scene  stands  out  clear  and  vivid  before 
the  eye  of  the  mind;  only  then  is  he  prepared  to 
describe  it. 

Remember  now  that  a  speaker  is  not  to  describe 
as  the  v/riter  of  a  poem,  a  romance,  or  a  book  of 
travels  might  do,  but  is  to  make  the  description 
brief,  and  subordinate  to  the  objects  of  his  discourse ; 
we  may  thus  perceive,  in  a  general  way,  how  the 
description  should  be  managed.  The  outlines  of 
the  picture  should  be  rapidly  drawn,  and  may  be 
rude,  provided  they  are  distinct.  Then  certain  prom- 
inent or  characteristic  points  of  the  scene  must  be 
presented.  And  with  some  of  these  there  should  be 
given  a  few  of  the  most  suggestive  details,  which  will 
arouse  the  hearer's  imagination  to  fill  up  the  picture. 
In  this  lies  the  great  art  of  description,  especially  for 
speakers  —  to  stimulate  the  hearer's  imagination  into 
seeing  for  himself.  Sometimes  there  are  a  few  details 
so  characteristic,  that  they  need  only  the  slightest 
indication  of  outline  to  make  a  picture ;  as  in  a  cari- 
cature, one  or  two  peculiar  features,  somewhat  exag- 
gerated, and  a  few  rude  lines  besides,  will  be  more 
amusing  than  a  finished  picture,  because  more  sug- 
gestive.     And  even  where  no    remarkably   striking 


l62     SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION. 

details  present  themselves,  one  may  contrive  slight 
touches  here  and  there,  which  will  give  life  to  the 
whole.  If  these  are  not  afforded  by  our  knowledge 
of  the  facts,  they  may  be  avowedly  imagined,  care 
being  taken  to  have  them  suggest  only  what  will 
harmonize  with  the  facts.  Thus  in  that  remark- 
able home-scene  at  Bethany,  after  describing  Mary 
seated  at  Jesus'  feet,  and  hearing  his  word,  one  might 
imagine  Martha  as  coming  to  the  door  of  the  room, 
her  face  heated  with  excitement  and  vexation,  and 
after  vainly  striving  to  catch  Mary's  eye  and  call 
her  forth,  at  length  stepping  straight  to  the  Master 
himself,  with  her  complaining  request;  and  this 
slight  glance  at  her  before  she  enters  will  help  to 
realize  the  scene. 

Avoid  elaborate  description.  The  preacher  is  ex- 
pected always  to  cherish  so  practical  a  design,  and 
feel  such  absorbing  earnestness,  as  not  to  have  time 
for  painting  finished  pictures.  Hearers  of  good  taste 
will  always  feel  them  to  be  out  of  place.  As  regards 
the  temptation  to  give  high-wrought  descriptions, 
because  it  will  show  one's  talent  in  that  respect,  this 
must  of  course  be  resisted,  like  all  other  temptations 
to  display.  But  we  cannot  turn  to  the  best  account 
the  historical  portions  of  Scripture,  nor  use  to  advan- 
tage other  narrative  and  pictorial  illustration,  without 
cultivating  our  powers  of  narration  and  description ; 
and  he  who  will  patiently  strive,  under  the  guidance 
of  correct  principles,  first  to  see  clearly,  and  then  to 
describe  suggestively,  may  ere  long  surprise  himself 
by  the  facility  and  pleasure  with  which  he  can 
bring  out,  in  not  many  words,  some  story  or  scene 
from  the  Bible.^ 

1  Comp.  on  Expos.  Preaching,  Part  11.  chap,  iii.,  and  on  Elegance 
of  Style,  Part  III.  chap.  iv.  Some  good  suggestions  as  to  Description, 
are  found  in  Bain's  Rhetoric,  p.  153  ff. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS— EXPLANATION.     163 

§  3.      EXPLANATION  OF    SUBJECTS.    - 

Here  again  there  will  be  included,  not  merely  the 
general  subject  of  a  discourse,  but  any  other  ideas 
which  enter  into  the  discussion.  Both  the  former 
and  the  latter  must  often  require  explanation.  Many 
matters  of  truth  and  duty  are  obscure  and,  without 
help,  practically  unintelligible  to  the  popular  mind; 
many  questions  are  sadly  perplexing.  To  answer 
such  inquiries,  to  clear  up  difficulties,  and  make  as 
plain  as  possible  the  way  of  truth  and  the  path  of 
duty,  is,  as  well  as  the  explanation  of  Scripture,  an 
important  part  of  the  preacher's  work. 

One  means  of  explaining  subjects  is  by  Defini- 
tion. "  Definition  is  defined  by  the  etymology  of 
the  word.  It  marks  the  limits  of  an  idea.  To  define 
definition  positively,  we  say  that  it  teaches  of  what 
elements  an  idea,  as  a  whole,  is  composed.  It  con- 
sists in  bringing  together  many  general  ideas,  of 
which  one  is  limited  by  the  others.  When  the  idea, 
so  to  speak,  is  fortified,  entrenched,  so  that  on  all 
sides  it  repels  ideas  which  would  mix  themselves 
with  it,  the  object  is  defined.  We  must  not  confound 
definition  and  judgment.  Definition  does  but  verify 
identity;  judgment  expresses  a  relation.  .  .  .  Defi- 
nition aims  to  make  us  know;  judgment,  to  appre- 
ciate. Very  often,  however,  definition  appreciates, 
and  involves  judgment;  and  judgment  is  equivalent 
to  a  partial  definition.  We  must  not,  however,  con- 
found with  definition  those  judgments  which  give 
force  to  a  characteristic  of  an  object,  and  are  only 
designed  to  excite  toward  it  such  or  such  a  sentiment 
Examples : 

"  *  Rivers  are  roads  that  move  and  carry  us  whither 
we  would  go.* 

** '  Hypocrisy  is  a  homage  which  vice  pays  to 
virtue.* 


l64    SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION. 

** '  Time  is  the  treasure  of  the  poor.' 

"  *  A  tomb  is  a  monument  placed  on  the  boundary 
between  two  worlds.' 

"  *  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law.'  " 

"  When  the  notion  of  the  attribute  does  not  ex- 
haust that  of  the  subject,  and  one  cannot  be  put 
indifferently  for  the  other,  we  have  not  a  definition, 
we  have  a  judgment.  ...  A  definition  is  indeed  a 
judgment,  but  a  judgment  which  contains  or  be- 
gets all  the  judgments  which  at  any  time  may- 
be pronounced  upon  an  object.  And  reciprocally, 
by  combining  all  the  judgments  which  at  any 
time  may  be  pronounced  on  an  object,  we  have 
a  definition."  ^ 

Vinet  proceeds  to  give  examples  of  definition,  in- 
cluding one  which  is  very  often  called  a  definition, 
but  surely  without  propriety :  "Faith  is  the  substance 
of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen." 
(Heb.  xi.  I.)  Other  judgments  may  be  pronounced 
upon  faith  besides  this.  Faith  is  the  substance  of 
things  hoped  for,  etc.,  just  as  love  is  the  fulfilling 
of  the  law.  It  may  be  said  that  faith  is  the  means  of 
union  with  Christ;  but  that  is  not  defining  faith.  In 
fact,  as  we  have  before  observed,  it  scarcely  needs 
definition,  or  admits  of  it. 

We  may  sometimes  most  readily  define  an  idea  by 
connecting  it  with  another  idea,  either  in  the  way  of 
distinction,  or  of  comparison.^  And  instead  of,  or  in 
addition  to  definition,  it  is  often  well  to  employ  ex- 
emplification, for  which  see  below. 

**  Definition  is  not  only  a  means  of  perspicuity,  an 
element  of  instruction,  the  basis  of  argumentation;  it 
is  often  the  beginning  of  proof.  Demonstration,  at 
least,  is  firm  and  sure  in  proportion  to  the  exactness 
and  clearness  of  the  definition."  Every  one  has 
1  Vinet,  Horn.  pp.  161-163.  2  See  Vinet,  p.  165. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION.     165 

observed  how  important  it  is  in  beginning  a  con- 
troversial discussion,  public  or  private,  that  the  ques- 
tion should  be  exactly  defined ;  otherwise  confusion 
of  ideas  is  inevitable.^  Now  it  is  equally,  though  not 
so  obviously  important,  in  conducting  a  discussion 
alone,  that  one  should  clearly  define  to  himself  the 
subject  in  hand.  In  fact  it  is  more  important  in  this 
case,  because  controversy  will  sooner  or  later  force 
the  parties  to  perceive  that  they  have  not  clearly 
understood  the  question,  or  understood  it  in  the  same 
way,  while  the  solitary  thinker,  or  the  unanswered 
speaker,  may  remain  permanently  involved  in  the 
confusion  or  error  produced  by  his  lack  of  well- 
defined  conceptions  at  the  outset.  And  the  same 
thing  applies  to  the  definition  of  leading  terms.  But 
while  we  must  always  define  to  ourselves,  it  is  not 
always  necessary  that  we  should  define  to  the  audi- 
ence. The  proposition  of  the  subject,  if  felicitous, 
may  often  be  sufficiently  perspicuous  and  precise ;  or 
we  may  see  that  the  discussion  itself  will  most  effec- 
tually give  clear  and  definite  views  of  the  subject.  In 
all  definitions  stated,  we  should  eschew  formality,  and 
"  avoid  too  subtle  distinctions  and  classifications, 
which  assume  a  great  habit  of  abstraction,  and  an 
exact  knowledge  of  language  on  the  part  of  the 
hearer."  2 

A  second  means  of  explaining  ideas  is  by  Divi- 
sion, But  the  methods  of  dividing  a  subject,  and 
of  stating  divisions,  can  be  most  conveniently  ex- 
amined when  we  come  to  discuss  the  arrangement  of 
discourse.^ 

Exemplification  is  often  necessary,  and  almost 
always  useful,  in  the  work  of  explanation.  The  com- 
mon mind  does  not  readily  apprehend  general  defini- 

^  Comp.  below,  p.  173.  2  Vinet,  pp.  164,  165. 

*  Part  II.  chap.  ii. 


l66    SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION. 

tions,  expressed  in  abstract  terms ;  and  even  to  the 
most  cultivated  thinkers  an  idea  will  become  more 
vivid  and  interesting,  when  there  is  added  to  a  pre- 
cise definition  some  apposite  example.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  present  to  a  popular  audience  a  clear  dis- 
tinction between  pride  and  vanity,  in  the  way  of 
definition;  but  by  supposing  certain  circumstances, 
and  showing  how  the  proud  man  would  act,  and  how 
the  vain  man,  in  such  a  case,  or  by  taking  up  some 
particular  action  of  a  well-known  character,  and  in- 
quiring whether  the  motive  here  was  pride  or  vanity, 
we  may  speedily  make  the  difference  plain.  So  in- 
stead of  undertaking  to  explain  faith,  one  may 
describe  a  believer;  or  in  addition  to  stating  in 
general  terms  what  will  make  a  Christian  happy,  may 
give  an  ideal  portraiture  of  a  Christian  who  was 
happy.i  And  still  more  useful  are  examples  from 
real  life.  Every  preacher  turns  to  account  in  this 
way  his  observation  of  life,  and  some  do  so  with  very 
great  effectiveness.  But  besides  what  we  have  per- 
sonally observed,  we  have  the  wide  fields  of  history, 
and  especially  of  Scripture  history,  from  which  to  de- 
rive examples.  In  selecting  those  to  be  used,  the 
preacher  must  inquire  not  only  what  is  most  apposite, 
but  what  will  be  most  intelligible  and  interesting  to 
the  particular  audience,  and  what  he  himself  can  most 
effectively  handle.  Historical  examples  which  would 
thrill  one  congregation,  will  make  but  little  impres- 
sion on  another,  not  being  familiar  to  them,  or  not 
linked  to  them  by  any  ties  of  sympathy.  In  this,  as 
in  most  respects,  examples  from  Bible  history  are  the 
best.  They  are  more  generally  familiar  than  most 
others,  and  if  any  time  be  consumed  in  bringing  the 
example  vividly  before  the   hearers,  it  is   time  well 

1  Interesting  and  instructive  examples  of  this  kind  may  be  found 
in  Jeter's  Christian  Mirror. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — EXPLANATION.     1 6/ 

Spent,  because  it  promotes  general  acquaintance  with 
the  Scriptures.^ 

Among  the  commonest  and  most  useful  means  of 
explanation,  is  Comparison.  With  this  may  be  classed 
Contrast,  and  also  Analogy,  which  depends  on  a  re- 
semblance, not  in  objects  themselves,  but  in  their 
respective  relations  to  certain  other  objects.  Analogy, 
however,  is  more  frequently  employed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  proof,  and  will  be  considered  in  the  next 
chapter.     Contrast  needs  no  special  remark.^ 

The  great  mass  of  our  Lord's  Parables  are  compar- 
isons. "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like,''  etc.  "  Unto 
what  shall  we  liken  this  generation?  "  Some  of  them 
are  thrown  into  the  form  of  narrative ;  but  others  are 
mere  statements  of  comparison,  and  he  uses  many 
striking  comparisons  which  are  never  called  parables. 
The  comparison  of  his  coming  to  that  of  a  thief 
(Matt.  xxiv.  43,  44)  is  an  instructive  example  of  the 
fact  that  comparison  is  all  the  more  striking  where  we 
have  one  point  of  resemblance  between  objects  or 
events  in  other  respects  very  different.  Several  of 
the  parables  are  rather  cases  of  Exemplification  than 
of  Comparison ;  as,  for  instance,  the  Rich  Man  pre- 
paring to  take  his  ease,  the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican, 
the  Good  Samaritan.  Many  of  them  are  introduced 
for  other  purposes  in  addition  to  that  of  explanation. 
But  they  are  chiefly  comparisons,  and  are  mainly 
used  to  explain.  They  thus  impressively  exhibit  to 
us  the  importance  of  explanation,  and  the  value  of 
comparison  as  a  means  of  effecting  it.  The  same 
high  example  reminds  us  how  desirable  it  is  to  de- 
rive our  comparisons  from  matters  familiar  to  our 
hearers.^ 

^  Comp.  Vinet,  p.  167,  and  see  below  on  Illustration,  chap.  viii. 
2  See  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  pp.  104-109. 
^  See  further  on  Illustration,  chap.  viii. 


l68        SPECIAL   MATERIALS— ARGUMENT. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  —  ARGUMENT. 


§  I.  Importance    of    Argument 
IN  Preaching. 

2.  Questions     Preliminary    to 

Argument. 

3.  Principal  Varieties  of  Ar- 

gument. 


§  4.  Certain    Forms    of    Argu- 
ment. 

5.  Refutation. 

6.  Order  of  Arguments. 

7.  General  Suggestions  as  to 

Argument. 


MEN  delight  in  argument  —  not  so  much  in  its 
forms  as  in  its  reality.  The  cultivated  intel- 
lect finds  in  it  delightful  and  familiar  exercise.  And 
even  those  who  have  never  studied  Logic,  nor  used 
it  in  any  formal  way,  are  pleased  with  the  thing 
itself.  You  will  see  a  light  in  the  faces  of  unlet- 
tered rustics,  when  an  argument  drawn  from  matters 
within  their  range  of  thought  or  suited  to  their  taste, 
is  presented  in  terms  so  plain,  so  vigorous,  so  inter- 
esting, that  they  take  hold  of  it  with  ease,  and  feel 
all  its  force  and  impressiveness.  Now  argument,  in 
the  logical,  and  at  the  same  time  popular,  sense 
of  the  term,  forms  a  very  large  and  very  important 
department  of  the  materials  of  preaching.  There 
are  preachers,  it  is  true,  who  seem  to  consider  that 
they  have  no  occasion  for  reasoning,  that  everything 
is  to  be  accomplished  by  authoritative  assertion  and 
impassioned  appeal.  And  this  notion  is  not  new; 
for  we  find  Aristotle  complaining  that  previous 
writers  on  Rhetoric  had  concerned  themselves  only 
with  the  means  of  persuasion  by  appeals  to  feeling 
and  prejudice.  But  preachers  really  have  great  use 
for  argument,  and  there  are  many  reasons  why  its 
importance  in  preaching  should  be  duly  considered. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.         169 
§   I.    IMPORTANCE  OF  ARGUMENT  IN  PREACHING. 

There  are  many  gainsayers  and  doubters  to  be 
convinced,  both  as  regards  the  truth  of  Christianity, 
and  the  truth  of  what  we  represent  to  be  its  teach- 
ings. There  are  many  who  in  both  respects  believe, 
but  whose  religious  affections  and  activity  might  be 
not  a  little  quickened  by  convincing  and  impressive 
proofs  that  these  things  are  so.  "  Even  in  the  cases 
in  which  reasoning  seems  superfluous,  it  may  be 
greatly  useful,  since  its  object  is  not  so  much  to 
prove  what  is  not  yet  believed,  as  to  fill  the  mind 
with  the  evidence,  and,  if  we  may  so  speak,  to  mul- 
tiply the  brightness  of  truth.  "^  And  besides,  there 
is  in  Christian  countries  a  multitude  of  people  who 
say  they  believe,  because  they  do  not  disbelieve  or 
question,  whose  minds  remain  in  a  negative  state 
towards  the  gospel,  which  is  often  the  most  fatal 
form  of  unbelief.  Argument,  as  to  the  truth  and 
value  and  claims  of  the  gospel,  as  to  the  peril  and 
guilt  of  their  position,  is  one  of  the  means  by  which 
we  must  strive  to  bring  them,  through  the  special 
blessing  of  the  Spirit,  into  some  real,  some  opera- 
tive belief.  "Argument  is  also  often  useful  in 
arousing  the  feelings.  The  mind  becomes  inter- 
ested in  a  truth  which  is  capable  of  clear  proof.  .  .  . 
The  most  successful  preachers,  as  instruments  of 
producing  immediate  conversion,  the  most  success- 
ful revival  preachers,  are  often  at  first  severely  argu- 
mentative. They  thus  gain  power  to  bear  down  upon 
the  conscience  and  heart. "  ^ 

Some  forms  of  error,  which  exalt  the  intellectual 
at  the  expense  of  the  spiritual,  gain  much  accept- 
ance, particularly  with  a  certain  class  of  minds,  by 
the  argumentative  garb  in  which  they  appear.     The 

1  Vinet,  p.  176.  2  Hoppin,  p.  408. 


I/O        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

teachers  of  these  errors  come  to  men  accustomed  to 
a  sleepy  acquiescence  in  truths  which  they  have 
never  heard  vigorously  discussed,  bring  their  powers 
of  argument  into  agreeable  exercise,  and  they  are 
won.  Even  those  who  maintain  sound  doctrine, 
sometimes  support  it  by  very  unsound  reasoning, 
and  thereby  leave  the  way  open  for  some  shrewd 
opponent  to  overthrow  their  arguments,  and  thus 
appear  to  overthrow  their  doctrine. 

Every  preacher,  then,  ought  to  develop  and  dis- 
cipline his  powers  in  respect  to  argument.  If  averse 
to  reasoning,  he  should  constrain  himself  to  practise 
it;  if  by  nature  strongly  inclined  that  way,  he  must 
remember  the  serious  danger  of  deceiving  himself 
and  others  by  false  arguments.  One  who  has  not 
carefully  studied  some  good  treatise  of  Logic  should 
take  the  earliest  opportunity  to  do  so.  It  will  ren- 
der his  mind  sharper  to  detect  fallacy,  in  others  or 
in  himself,  and  will  help  to  establish  him  in  the 
habit  of  reasoning  soundly.  The  fact  that,  as  so 
often  sneeringly  remarked,  "preachers  are  never 
replied  to,"  should  make  it  a  point  of  honor  with 
preachers  not  to  mislead  their  hearers  by  bad  logic, 
and  should  render  them  exceedingly  solicitous  to 
avoid  those  self-deceptions,  which  they  have  no 
keen  opponent  to  reveal.  Well-conducted  debat- 
ing-societies, prolonged  argument  with  a  friend  in 
private  conversation,  and  sometimes  newspaper  dis- 
cussions, are  found  by  various  preachers  to  be  a 
valuable  discipline  in  this  respect.  But  one  must 
constantly  remind  himself  to  argue  for  truth  rather 
than  for  victory,  and,  as  a  rule,  never  to  maintain  a 
proposition  which  he  does  not  really  believe.  The 
delicate  perception  of  truth,  and  the  enthusiastic 
love  for  it,  will  inevitably  be  impaired  by  a  contrary 
course. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        171 

Yet  in  preaching  we  need  not  act  as  if  everything 
had  to  be  proved.  Some  things  cannot  be  proved ; 
some  do  not  need  to  be,  and  others  have  been  suffi- 
ciently proved  before,  and  should  now  be  taken  for 
granted.  Elaborate  argument  which  is  not  called 
for  will  only  awaken  doubt,  or  lead  to  weariness 
and  disgust.  We  may  usually  assume  the  truth  of 
Scripture.  ^  And  as  to  whatever  the  Scriptures  plainly 
teach,  while  we  must  sometimes  argue,  it  is  often 
true,  as  Spurgeon  has  said,  that  the  preacher  should 
"dogmatize."  "The  accent  of  true  authority  is  wel- 
come to  almost  every  one.  We  are  prepossessed  in 
favor  of  men  who,  in  this  world  of  uncertainty  and 
perplexity,  express  themselves  on  a  grave  subject 
with  confidence  and  command.  .  .  .  The  person  of 
preachers  is  nothing,  their  message  is  the  whole  ,- 
and  not  for  their  person,  but  for  their  message,  do> 
they  claim  respect;  but  they  would  be  as  culpable 
not  to  demand  this  respect  for  the  divine  thought  of 
which  they  are  the  depositaries,  as  they  would  be 
foolish  and  ridiculous  to  demand  it  for  their  own 
thoughts.  "2  But  the  right  to  speak  with  such 
authority  will  be  acknowledged,  among  Protestants, 
only  where  the  preacher  shows  himself  able  to  prove, 
whenever  it  is  appropriate,  all  that  he  maintains. 

Argument  in  preaching  has  one  peculiarity. 
There  is  a  great  authority,  the  Word  of  God,  whose 
plain  utterances  upon  any  question  must  be  held  by 
the  preacher  as  decisive  and  final.  This  is  proof 
without  arguing  in  the  narrow  sense.  Somewhat 
similarly  do  all  men  prove  by  the  direct  appeal  to 
consciousness.  ''You  know  that  so  and  so  is  true," 
will  in  some  cases  settle  the  question.  So,  too,  we 
frequently  appeal  to  common  sense ;  though  it  should 

1  Comp.  chap.  iii.  §  i,  Doctrinal  Subjects. 

2  Vinet,  pp.  228,  229. 


/^ 


172        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

be  noticed  that  men  often  put  forward  as  a  judgment 
of  common  sense  what  is  only  some  opinion  of  their 
own,  some  conclusion  reached  by  a  process  of  reason- 
ing, but  a  process  so  obscure  as  to  escape  their  con- 
sciousness and  thus  hide  its  fallacies  from  their  view. 
But  the  Scriptures  furnish  a  standard  of  final  appeal 
having  a  far  more  frequent  and  extensive  applica- 
tion. This  does  not  at  all  enable  us  to  dispense 
with  argument.  We  have  sometimes  to  prove  that 
the  Scriptures  are  such  a  standard ;  and  to  show  what 
the  various  passages  of  Scripture  teach  on  a  subject 
often  requires  not  merely  exposition  but  argument. 
Many  truths  have  to  be  established  partly  by  argu- 
ment on  other  grounds,  reinforced  and  confirmed  by 
indirect  teachings  of  the  Bible;  and  it  is  gratifying 
to  believers,  and  demanded  by  unbelievers,  that  we 
should,  wherever  it  is  possible,  exhibit  the  concur- 
rence of  reason  and  experience  with  the  teachings  of 
revelation.  Thus  we  have  constant  need  of  argu- 
ment. But  in  all  our  reasoning,  care  should  be 
taken  to  treat  the  authority  of  Scripture  as  para- 
mount, and  wherever  its  utterances  are  distinct  and 
unquestionable,  as  decisive.  ^ 

§    2.    QUESTIONS   PRELIMINARY  TO  ARGUMENT.  ^ 

There  are  several  questions  which  require  to  be 
considered,  if  at  all,  at  the  outset  of  an  argument, 

1  See  below,  §  3,  (2),  (5),  and  also  §  6,  Order  of  Arguments. 

2  In  the  following  discussion  much  use  is  made  of  Whately,  whose 
treatment  of  Arguments  is  the  most  valuable  part  of  his  work  on 
Rhetoric,  and  unequalled  by  other  treatises.  Some  things  have  also 
been  drawn  directly  from  Aristotle,  and  from  a  variety  of  writers,  as 
acknowledged  in  detail.  The  chapter  contains  a  good  deal  which  is 
not  found  in  Whately,  or  which  differs  widely  from  his  views.  The  at- 
tempt is  made  to  arrange  the  subject  in  a  simpler  and  more  practical 
way  than  has  been  met  with  in  existing  works. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  —  ARGUMENT.        1 73 

and  which  are  here  thrown  together  under  the  head 
of  preliminaries. 

(i)  Shall  the  proposition  be  stated  at  the  beginning? 
It  should  certainly  be  very  clear  to  the  speaker's 
own  mind.  To  argue  about  one  does  not  exactly 
know  what,  is  idle,  and  in  many  ways  hurtful.  As 
a  general  thing,  it  should  be  distinctly  stated  to  the 
audience.  If  the  subject  be  one  very  difficult  for 
the  common  mind  to  grasp,  it  may  be  better  to 
present  it  in  parts,  to  give  first  the  several  argu- 
ments which  will  elucidate  as  well  as  establish  the 
proposition,  and  then  state  it  in  conclusion.  Or  if 
there  be  a  known  unwillingness  to  hear  the  subject 
discussed,  or  a  strong  prejudice  against  the  proposi- 
tion to  be  established,  it  may  be  best  to  withhold 
the  enunciation  of  the  proposition.  Even  here,  how- 
ever, it  will  often  be  better  to  speak  out  frankly  and 
boldly.  Men  always  dislike  to  be  caught  unawares, 
and  are  especially  intolerant  of  this  on  the  part  of  a 
preacher,  in  whom  logical  strategy  can  be  so  readily 
stigmatized  as  uncandid.  And  the  preacher  must 
always  avoid  as  far  as  possible  the  appearance  of 
being  the  antagonist  of  his  hearers.  His  designs 
are  friendly,  and  he  wishes  no  concealment.  Only, 
therefore,  in  case  of  violent  repugnance  or  extreme 
prejudice,  or  for  some  other  special  reason,  will  it 
be  judicious  for  a  preacher  to  keep  back  the  state- 
ment of  his  proposition.^ 

In  stating  the  proposition,  or  any  division  of  it, 
and  in  the  whole  conduct  of  an  argument,  great  pains 
should  be  taken  to  avoid  ambiguous  terms,  or,  if 
such  must  be  employed,  to  limit  their  meaning  by 
the  connection,  or  distinctly  define  them.^  The 
following  terms,  for  example,   frequently  occur  in 

1  Comp.  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  p.  117 ;  Vinet,  p.  i8a 

2  See  above,  p.  165. 


174       SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

religious  argument,  and  very  often  embarrass  and 
mislead  by  their  ambiguity;  namely,  necessary,  pos- 
sible and  impossible,  reason,  right  and  righteous- 
ness, good  and  evil,  law,  nature,  person,  church.^ 
(2)  Where  lies  the  burden  of  proof  f  In  legal  proc- 
esses and  in  other  debates  the  determination  of  this 
question  often  becomes  very  important.  In  preach- 
ing we  are  concerned  with  it  only  indirectly.  In 
controversial  sermons  it  is  essential  that  we  should 
clearly  perceive  where  lies  the  burden  of  proof,  and 
sometimes  in  the  statement  of  propositions  and  ques- 
tions it  may  be  well  to  make  this  formally  clear  to 
the  hearers;  and  in  general  for  clearness  of  discrim- 
ination and  logical  accuracy  in  argument  the  under- 
lying principle  of  the  burden  of  proof  should  be 
understood.  This  principle  is  well  stated  in  the 
Roman  legal  formula:  Ei  incumbit probatio  qui  dicity 
non  qui  negat  (the  proof  lies  upon  him  who  affirms, 
not  who  denies).  That  is  to  say.  He  who  alleges 
anything  must  prove  his  allegation;  and,  conversely, 
no  man  is  required  to  prove  the  negative  of  another 
man's  assertion.  He  may  refute  the  assertion  by 
alleging  the  contrary;  but  in  this  case  he  becomes 
the  affirmant,  and  must,  accordingly,  prove  his  own 
allegation.  Again,  an  allegation  may  be  made  in 
negative  form,  and  he  who  asserts  a  negative  must 
prove  it ;  as  when  the  atheist  asserts  that  there  is  no 
God  he  is  logically  bound  to  make  good  his  asser- 
tion —  if  he  can.  But  it  is  evident  that  he  cannot 
do  this;  because,  as  John  Foster  pointed  out,  it 
would  require  universal  knowledge  to  make  good 
such  an  assertion,  for,  otherwise,  somewhere  beyond 
the  bounds  of  the  atheist's  knowledge  might  be 
proof  that  there  is  a  God.     Hence  it  is  very  seldom 

1  Most  of  these  are  explained  in  the  Appendix  to  Whately's  Logic, 
though  not  all  in  a  satisfactory  manner. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        1/5 

that  any  assertion  is  made  in  negative  form;  but 
still  the  principle  remains  true  —  the  assertor  must 
prove.  Further,  an  allegation  may  be  negative  in 
effect  though  affirmative  in  form ;  as  in  the  case  of 
proving  an  alibi.  A  crime  was  committed  at  a  cer- 
tain time  and  place ;  the  accused  proves  that  he  was 
in  another  place  at  that  exact  time ;  this  shows  that 
he  was  not  at  the  place  of  the  crime  when  the  deed 
was  done,  and  therefore  did  not  commit  it.  This  is 
the  essential  point;  it  does  not  matter  particularly 
where  he  was,  only  that  he  was  not  in  tJiat  place,  yet 
he  must  prove  that  he  was  somewhere  else.  So  in 
fact  he  establishes  a  negative,  but  he  does  so  by 
proving  his  own  allegation,  namely,  that  he  was 
somewhere  else  when  the  crime  was  committed. 
So  the  principle  stands  unaltered,  and  appears  to 
be  unalterable  and  universal :  He  who  alleges  must 
prove;  and  no  man  is  under  obligation  to  prove  the 
negative  of  another  man's  assertion.  Hence  it  is 
unfair  to  assert  without  proof,  and  call  upon  the 
opponent  to  prove  the  negative  of  what  we  say. 
This  is  a  convenient  way  of  declining  or  evading 
argument;  and  it  is  sometimes  resorted  to.  We 
should  in  preaching  be  very  careful  to  be  scrupu- 
lously fair  in  argument,  ever  remembering  that  when 
we  make  an  assertion  we  are  under  solemn  obliga- 
tion to  prove  it  if  we  can;  and  this  is  so  even  when 
the  assertion  is  negative  in  form  or  effect. 

(3)  What  value  has  presumption  in  argument  f  In 
conducting  argument  we  frequently  meet  this  ques- 
tion. It  is  closely  related  to  that  regarding  the 
burden  of  proof,  and  like  that  has  not  much  imme- 
diate connection  with  preaching,  and  yet  requires  of 
us  a  clear  understanding  and  a  fair  use  of  the  prin- 
ciples involved.  And  so  it  is  important  first  of  all 
to  know  what  is  meant  by  presumption.     Confusion 


176       SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

arises  from  using  the  term  in  different  meanings. 
Three  are  to  be  distinguished:  the  common  mean- 
ing, the  legal  usage,  and  Whately's  definition. 

{a)  The  common  meaning  of  presumption.  A  pre- 
sumption in  favor  of  any  proposition  is,  in  the  most 
general  statement,  something  which  inclines  us  to 
believe  it  true  before  examining  the  proof,  or  inde- 
pendently of  any  formal  process  of  reasoning.  In 
other  words,  it  is  that  part  of  the  evidence  which 
lies  upon  the  surface  and  leads  to  belief  in  advance 
of  further  investigation.  It  is  therefore  not  lack  of 
evidence;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  prominence  of 
a  part  of  the  evidence.  On  further  examination  it 
may  be  confirmed  or  weakened,  established  or  over- 
thrown; but  in  itself,  strictly  and  etymologically 
speaking,  a  presumption  is  that  which  we  take  hold 
of  before  we  enter  formally  into  investigation  or 
argument.  Now  it  is  evident  that  presumptions  will 
differ  greatly  in  force  and  value  according  to  the  cir- 
cumstances involved  in  each  case,  and  also  accord- 
ing to  the  opinions  and  feelings  of  the  persons 
engaged  in  the  argument.  What  would  be  a  very 
strong  presumption  to  you  might  be  a  weak  one,  or 
none  at  all,  to  your  opponent.  So  in  using  a  pre- 
sumption we  must  be  sure  that  it  will  have  some 
force  with  our  hearers  as  well  as  with  ourselves. 

{b)  The  legal  usage  in  regard  to  presumption.  Ow- 
ing to  the  natural  difference  as  to  the  strength  of 
presumptions,  and  for  the  general  good  of  society, 
it  became  necessary  to  establish  arbitrarily,  in  cer- 
tain well-known  cases,  presumptions  of  law.^  The 
most  familiar  of  these  is  the  maxim  that  an  accused 
person  is  to  be  presumed  innocent  until  he  is  proved 
guilty.     But  this  is  an  arbitrary  presumption  framed 

1  See  Starkie  on  Evidence,  Preface,  p.  vi. ;  and  Greenleaf  on 
Evidence,  Vol.  I.  §  32. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        1 77 

in  the  interests  of  justice.  Its  theory  is  to  secure 
to  every  person  arraigned  for  an  infraction  of  law  a 
fair  trial ;  his  case  must  be  tried  strictly  by  the  evi- 
dence that  can  be  obtained,  and  by  that  alone.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  however,  the  actual  logical  presump- 
tion may  be  and  often  is  directly  opposite  to  the  legal 
one.  And  this  is  shown  by  the  lawful  arrest  of  a 
suspected  person.  The  warrant  is  issued  on  the 
practical,  logical  presumption  of  guilt;  but  the  trial 
proceeds  on  the  legal,  arbitrary  presumption  of  inno- 
cence. Similarly  there  are  other  legal  presumptions 
which  may  or  may  not  coincide  with  the  logical 
ones;  as  in  the  case  of  the  soundness  of  titles  after 
so  many  years  of  possession,  or  of  the  payment  of  a 
debt  after  a  certain  time  has  elapsed.  These  legal 
presumptions  should  not  therefore  confuse  our  minds 
as  to  the  nature  of  presumption  in  moral  reasoning 
where  the  arbitrary,  though  generally  benevolent, 
principles  of  law  are  not  in  question. 

(c)  Whately  s  definition  of  presumption.  Arch- 
bishop Whately,  followed  by  others,^  has  given  a 
meaning  to  presumption  which  departs  from  both 
the  ordinary  and  the  legal  usage  of  the  word.  He 
defines  as  follows:  "According  to  the  most  correct 
use  of  the  term,  a  '  Presumption  '  in  favor  of  any  sup- 
position means  not  (as  has  been  sometimes  errone- 
ously imagined)  a  preponderance  of  probability  in 
its  favor,  but  such  a  preoccupation  of  the  ground  as 
implies  that  it  must  stand  good  till  some  sufficient 
reason  is  adduced  against  it ;  in  short,  that  the  Bur- 
den of  Proof  lies  on  the  side  of  him  who  would  dis- 
pute it."  By  this  definition  Whately  assumes  what 
he  ought  to  have  proven ;  and  in  every  question  in 
which  we  should  in  any  sense  say  that  the  presump- 
tion  is  in  favor  of  one  side,  he  assumes  that  the 

1  Whately,  p.  139;  Day,  in  Art  of  Discourse,  p.  155  ff. 
12 


178        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

burden  of  proof  rests  on  the  other  side.  If  pre- 
sumption ever  denotes  such  a  preoccupation,  it  cer- 
tainly does  not  always  nor  commonly.  It  may  be  on 
either  side,  or  on  neither,  without  altering  the  burden 
of  proof  at  all;  for  that,  as  we  have  seen,  depends  on 
a  different  principle,  namely,  that  he  who  alleges 
must  prove.  If  he  alleges  in  harmony  with  or 
against  the  presumption,  he  must  still  prove  his 
affirmation.  The  presumption  may  be  an  important 
part  of  his  argument,  but  it  does  not  throw  the 
burden  of  proof  on  his  opponent. 

Whately's  illustrations  of  his  theory  are  not  con- 
clusive. He  adduces  the  presumptions  of  law  to 
support  his  view;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  these  are 
arbitrary  presumptions,  and  even  then  the  actual 
presumption  may  be  against  the  legal  one.  It  does 
not  follow,  therefore,  that  even  in  these  cases  the 
presumption  puts  the  burden  of  proof  on  the  other 
side.  Again,  Whately  says  ^  that  there  is  a  "  pre- 
sumption in  favor  of  every  existing  institution,"  so 
that  the  burden  of  proof  rests  on  him  who  proposes 
to  change  it,  "simply  on  the  ground  that  since  a 
change  is  not  a  good  in  itself,  he  who  demands  a 
change  should  show  cause  for  it."  This  may  be 
very  true,  but  it  is  not  because  of  the  presumption, 
but  because  of  the  fact  that  he  who  proposes  a 
change  is  commonly  and  properly  the  affirmant.  He 
alleges  the  desirability  of  a  change,  and  must  prove 
his  allegation.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the'  person 
opposed  to  change  affirms  that  the  existing  institu- 
tion is  good,  and  ought  to  be  retained,  then  he 
alleges  and  has  the  burden  of  proof.  He  is  then  at 
liberty  to  use  the  presumption  in  favor  of  an  exist- 
ing institution  as  a  part  of  his  argument.  It  may 
thus  have  argumentative  value,  but  not  in  such  a 

1  Page  141 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  —  ARGUMENT.        1 79 

way  as  always  or  necessarily  to  put  the  burden  of 
proof  on  the  other  side ;  that  depends,  as  usual,  on 
the  principle  of  affirmation  and  negation.  ^ 

(3)  What  use  shall  be  made  of  indirect  proof?  In- 
stead of  direct  proof  that  the  proposition  is  true,  we 
sometimes  adopt  the  indirect  method,  namely,  by 
showing  that  the  contrary  supposition  would  lead  to 
something  known  to  be  untrue,  or  in  itself  absurd 
{reductio  ad  absurdum).  This  plan  is  very  often 
pursued  in  Geometry,  where  only  one  or  two  other 
suppositions  would  be  possible.  But  in  moral  rea- 
soning this  does  not  often  happen,  and  hence  the 
rediictio  ad  absurdum  is  for  us  chiefly  important  in 
refutation. 2  In  legal  causes  the  proof  of  an  alibi^ 
while  an  indirect  argument,  may,  as  we  have  seen, 
be  a  very  conclusive  one;  and  similarly  in  argumen- 
tative preaching  we  may  often  have  occasion  to  show 
that  certain  things  are  false  or  objectionable  not  so 
much   by  arguing  directly  against  them  as  by  evinc- 

1  Whately  applies  his  theory  to  Infant-baptism  and  Episcopacy, 
arguing  that  as  existing  institutions  they  should  be  maintained,  unless 
the  opponent  can  show  good  cause  for  rejecting  them,  and  that  the 
burden  of  proof  rests  on  him  to  do  so.  Of  course  one  will  continue 
to  practise  as  he  has  done  till  he  sees  cause  to  do  otherwise.  But  if 
he  refuses  to  discuss  the  desirability  of  a  change,  on  the  ground  that 
the  opponent  must  prove  the  negative  of  his  assertion  that  the  institu- 
tion is  good  and  should  be  retained,  he  simply  evades  debate.  But  if 
he  consents  to  argue  at  all,  he  virtually  asserts  the  desirability  of  his 
practice,  and  so  has  the  burden  of  proof.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
objector  has  it  for  every  objection  which  he  alleges  against  the  prac- 
tice in  question.  Besides,  Infant-baptism  and  Episcopacy  do  not  pre- 
sent themselves  as  human  institutions  which  it  might  \iQ  presumed  vatn 
had  good  reasons  for  establishing,  but  as  divine  institutions  for  which,v 
as  Whately  himself  elsewhere  admits,  it  must  be  presitmed thzX  there  is 
Scripture  authority.  The  absence  of  such  authority  is  therefore  pre- 
sumption against  them.  But  none  of  these  presumptions  alter  the 
burden  of  proof.     That  remains  on  him  who  alleges,  as  in  all  cases. 

In  this  discussion  some  help  has  been  derived  from  Carson's  able 
work  on  Baptism,  which  reviews  Whately  with  great  force. 

2  See  below,  §  4. 


l80       SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

ing  the  moral  beauty  or  Scriptural  truth  of  their 
opposites. 

§    3.    PRINCIPAL  VARIETIES   OF  ARGUMENT. 

It  is  not  proposed  to  give  a  formal  analysis  and 
classification  of  arguments,  but  to  explain  the  nature 
and  use  of  the  leading  varieties.  These  are  the 
arguments,  A  priori^  Deduction,  Induction,  Analogy, 
and  Testimony. 

(i)  Argument  a  priori.  The  phrase  a  priori  has 
come  to  be  so  variously  appHed  and  loosely  used, 
that  some  propose  to  abandon  it.  Yet  it  is  of  con- 
stant occurrence,  particularly  in  theological  and  phi- 
losophical discussions,  and  no  fit  substitute  has  been 
suggested.  It  seems  desirable,  therefore,  to  state 
distinctly  the  different  senses  in  which  the  phrase  is 
employed,  showing  which  are  legitimate  and  which 
unwarrantable,  and  in  what  cases  there  is  special 
necessity  for  care. 

To  argue  a  priori  is  literally  to  argue  from  some- 
thing prior  (before)  to  something  posterior  (after) ;  a 
movement  in  the  opposite  direction  being  denoted 
by  a  posteriori. 

{a)  It  was  originally  used  by  logical  writers,  and 
is  still  chiefly  used,  to  denote  an  argument  from 
cause  to  effect.  It  is  thus,  of  course,  applicable  to 
any  case  of  proper  physical  causes,  but  is  chiefly 
applied  to  argument  from  a  necessary  principle,  such 
as  ex  nihilo  nihil  fit  (out  of  nothing  nothing  is  made). 
This  species  of  argument  was  formerly  employed  on 
a  very  large  scale  for  the  ascertainment  of  physi- 
cal phenomena  and  laws.  Some  principle  was  laid 
down,  regarded  as  necessary  and  universal,  and  from 
this  it  was  argued  that  the  facts  of  existence  must 
be  so  and  so.     But  modern  science,  founded  on  obser- 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        l8l 

vation,  has  shown  that  some  of  the  supposed  neces- 
sary principles  are  not  true,  or  not  universal  Such 
facts  should  not  lead  us,  as  some  have  been  led,  to 
reject  all  arguments  from  necessary  principles,  but 
should  make  us  very  careful  in  using  them. 

The  conclusion  from  an  a  priori  argument  (sup- 
posing it  logically  conducted)  will  be  certain,  if  on 
the  one  hand  the  supposed  cause  is  a  real  one,  and 
on  the  other  hand,  there  is  nothing  to  interfere  with 
its  operation ;  but  if  the  reality  of  the  cause  (or 
necessary  principle)  be  subject  to  question,  or  its 
operations  be  liable  to  interference,  then  the  con- 
clusion is  only  more  or  less  probable.  When  in 
proving  that  we  have  a  revelation,  it  is  first  argued 
a prioriixom  the  character  of  God  and  the  condition 
of  man  that  a  revelation  was  to  be  expected^  this  is 
only  a  probable  argument,  for  we  do  not,  apart  from 
revelation,  sufficiently  understand  the  character  of 
God  to  infer  with  certainty  that  it  would  lead  him 
to  give  a  revelation  to  creatures  in  such  a  condition. 

The  name  a  priori  is  inaccurately  applied  to  some 
arguments  which  really  begin  with  facts  of  observa- 
tion (and  are  so  far  a  posteriori),  but  which  after- 
wards pursue  a  chain  of  abstract  reasoning  upon 
what  these  necessarily  involve.  Such  was  Samuel 
Clarke's  argument  for  the  existence  of  God,  which 
is  constantly  called  an  a  priori  argument  because 
it  introduces  certain  supposed  necessary  principles, 
and  reasons  for  the  most  part  abstractly,  and  yet  (as 
Hamilton  has  remarked),^  in  fact  begins  with  a 
matter  of  observation,  namely,  "we  are  sure  that 
something  does  exist.  "^ 

1  Hamilton,  ed.  of  Reid,  p.  762 ;  Fleming,  Vocab.  of  Philosophy, 
p.  42. 

2  See  the  statement  of  the  argument  in  Pye  Smith's  Theology, 
p.  lOI. 


1 82        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

{b)  The  use  of  the  phrase  has  been  gradually  ex- 
tended to  include  argument  from  what  appears  to  us 
a  general  principle  —  not  asserted  as  a  necessary 
principle,  but  one  which  is  believed  to  hold  true  in 
all  cases.  Unless  such  a  supposed  general  principle 
necessitates  a  certain  result,  that  result  cannot  be 
inferred  from  it  as  an  argument  a  priori.  The  prin- 
ciple is  in  that  case  only  a  generalized  fact,  like  the 
generalizations  of  Natural  History,  informing  us 
what  regularly  is,  not  in  any  sense  causing  it  to  be 
so.  But  in  this  unwarranted  direction  the  use  of 
the  phrase  is  sometimes  carried  very  far.  Men 
attempt  to  dignify  as  an  argument  a  priori^  or,  as 
they  sometimes  call  it,  an  argument  from  general 
principles,  what  is  really  an  argument  from  some 
arbitrary  preconception,  prejudice,  fanciful  theory, 
or  mere  opinion,  of  their  own.  And  some  appear 
to  think  that  any  argument  which  looks  general  or 
abstract  may  be  called  an  argument  a  priori.  We 
must  then  look  out  for  loose  applications  of  the 
phrase  on  the  part  of  others,  and  carefully  confine 
ourselves  to  the  legitimate  use. 

{c)  The  attempt  has  been  made  to  give  to  argu- 
ment a  priori  another  distinct  sense ;  namely,  the 
argument  from  a  substance  to  its  attributes.  ^  Thus, 
John  is  a  man,  therefore  he  possesses  intelligence, 
will,  conscience,  a  bodily  organization,  etc.  But 
this  is  called  an  argument  a  priori  only  by  overlook- 
ing a  distinction.  John  is  a  man,  therefore  he  will 
act  conscientiously,  is  an  argument  a  priori^  because 
it  means  that  there  is  something  in  the  constitution 
of  man  which  leads  him  to  act  conscientiously;  it  is 
really  an  argument  from  cause  to  effect  —  with  only 
a  probable  conclusion,  because  other  causes  so  often 
interfere  with  the  operation  of  man's  conscience. 
1  Day,  pp.  128-133. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        1 83 

But  to  say,  John  is  a  man,  therefore  he  has  a  con- 
science, is  only  an  argument  from  general  to  par- 
ticular, only  bringing  out  one  of  the  particulars 
which  go  to  make  up  the  general.  This  is  not  in 
any  sense  an  argument  from  something  prior^  for 
being  a  man  is  not  prior  to  having  a  conscience,  but 
includes  it.  The  argument,  John  is  mortal,  for  he 
is  a  man,^  is  somewhat  ambiguous.  Taken  strictly, 
it  infers  the  attribute  mortality,  and  is  thus  simply 
a  common  deduction  of  particular  from  general. 
But  understand  it  to  mean,  John  will  die,  for  he  is 
a  man,  and  you  have  an  argument  a  priori^  which, 
again,  is  really  from  cause  to  effect  —  there  is  that 
in  a  man  which  will  cause  him  to  die.  So  if  the 
term  law  is  employed.  When  law  denotes  "  merely 
a  general  fact,"  as.  It  is  the  law  of  material  bodies 
that  they  gravitate,  —  and  we  deduce  any  particular 
fact  from  the  general  one,  the  deduction  is  by  no 
means  an  argument  a  priori.  If  it  were  meant  that 
material  bodies  have  that  in  their  constitution  which 
causes  them  to  gravitate,  then  you  could  take  the 
case  of  any  particular  material  body,  and  infer, 
a  priori,  that  it  will  gravitate.  This  confusion  of 
law  as  the  statement  of  a  general  fact  with  law 
as  denoting  that  which  causes,  or  somehow  neces- 
sitates facts,  has  led  to  much  false  reasoning  in 
recent  works,  particularly  in  discussions  of  Divine 
Providence.  2 

So,  then,  to  infer  the  attribute  from  the  substance 
is  an  a  priori  argument  only  when  there  is  that  in 
the  nature  or  constitution  of  the  substance  which 
produces  the  attribute,  that  is,  when  the  argument 
proceeds  from  cause  to  effect.  This  is  evidently 
what  Vinet  is  thinking  of  when  he  says,  "  Proof  a 

^  Day,  p.  129. 

2  See  McCosh  on  the  Divine  Government. 


l84       SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

priori,  which  proves  the  fact  from  its  cause  or  its 
nature.  ...  I  prove  a  priori  that  lying  is  offensive 
to  God,  because  he  is  a  God  of  truth. "  ^  The  argument 
is,  that  there  is  that  in  God's  nature,  as  a  God  of  truth, 
which  must  render  lying  offensive  to  him;  and  this 
is  really  an  argument  from  cause  to  effect.  The 
remark  may  be  added,  that  a  priori  argument  from 
the  nature  of  God  must  be  employed  with  great 
care.  God  will  always  act  consistently  with  his 
nature,  and  so  conclusions  might  here  be  drawn  with 
certainty,  but  for  the  fact  that  we  so  imperfectly 
understand  the  divine  nature,  and  the  relations 
thereto  of  particular  lines  of  conduct.  "  God  is  just, 
therefore  he  will  give  all  men  an  equal  chance  of 
salvation,"  "God  is  good,  therefore  he  will  finally 
save  all  men,"  are  conclusions  which  the  angel 
Gabriel  might  well  feel  himself  too  ignorant  to 
draw. 

{d)  There  is  a  peculiar  use  of  a  priori  in  some 
modern  philosophical  works.  Kant  applied  the 
phrase  "knowledge  a  priori''  to  denote  knowledge 
possessed  by  the  mind  prior  to  all  that  it  derives 
from  experience;  and  then  knowledge  which  is  de- 
rived from,  comes  after,  experience  is  called  knowl- 
edge a  posteriori.*^  A  pair  of  antithetical  phrases 
will  of  course  admit  of  being  turned  towards  differ- 
ent points  of  the  compass,  provided  they  are  kept 
opposite  to  each  other. ^     Kant's  use  of  these  two 

1  Vinet,  p.  1 80.  The  expression  (perhaps  due  to  the  student 
whose  notes  are  followed),  "  its  nature/'  tends  to  confuse ;  but  the 
examples  show  what  is  meant. 

2  See  Fleming,  Vocabulary  of  Philosophy,  pp.  42,  43,  a  useful  book. 
8  For  example,  the  terms  analytic  and  synthetic  are  employed  by 

Vinet  (p.  180),  and  Potter  (Sacred  Eloquence,  p.  149),  in  diametri- 
cally opposite  ways  with  reference  to  the  same  things ;  and  each  use 
can  be  justified,  depending  on  the  way  in  which  the  matter  is  re- 
garded. Day  (p.  122)  has  a  third  use,  quite  different  from  either,  on 
a  kindred  topic 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUxMENT.        1 85 

phrases,  which  he  distinctly  defined,  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  some  subsequent  writers.  Let  it  be  under- 
stood, then,  by  the  student,  that  the  expressions,  a 
priori  knowledge ^  a  priori  truths ^  etc.,  mean  some- 
thing entirely  different  from  a  priori  argument.  We 
may  indeed  argue  a  priori  from  what  these  writers 
would  call  an  a  priori  truth  (for  example,  every  effect 
must  have  a  cause),  and  here  there  is  a  point  of 
apparent  contact  between  the  two  senses  of  the 
phrase,  but  they  are  altogether  different. 

An  argument  a  priori  has  been  thus  shown  to  be, 
in  all  legitimate  uses  of  the  phrase,  an  argument 
from  cause  to  effect;  whether  it  be  from  a  proper 
physical  cause,  or  from  something  in  the  general 
nature  of  things  which  necessitates  a  certain  result, 
or  from  something  in  the  nature  of  a  particular 
object  or  person  which  tends  to  produce  a  certain 
result. 

With  reference  to  the  employment  of  arguments, 
whether  a  priori  or  not,  bearing  upon  the  relations 
of  cause  and  effect,  there  are  ambiguities  in  the 
familiar  use  of  language,  which  render  necessary 
two  distinctions.  Firsts  we  must  distinguish  be- 
tween logical  and  physical  sequence.  For  example, 
"  With  many  of  them  God  was  not  well  pleased ;  for 
they  were  overthrown  in  the  wilderness."  The  fact 
that  God  was  not  well  pleased  with  them  is  the 
logical  consequent  of  their  overthrow,  being  proved 
from  it;  but  is,  so  to  speak,  the  physical  antecedent, 
being  the  cause  of  it.  These  two  kinds  of  sequence 
are  very  often  confounded,  and  very  liable  to  be, 
from  the  fact  that  we  use  the  same  terms,  "for,"  "  be- 
cause," "therefore,"  "consequently,"  etc.,  to  denote 
both;  yet  they  may  coincide,  or  be  opposed  to  each 
other,  or  may  exist  separately.  Particularly  fre- 
quent is  the  error  of  presenting  that  as  the  cause  of 


1 86       SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

something,  which  is  only  \.\i^  proof  oi  it.^  Secondly, 
it  is  important  to  distinguish  between  cause  and 
occasion.  The  inebriate  says  to  the  liquor-seller, 
or  to  his  boon  companion,  "You  are  the  cause  of 
my  getting  drunk,"  when  these  were  but  the  occa- 
sion, and  the  cause  was  his  appetite.  To  remove 
some  of  the  occasions  for  any  kind  of  vicious  in- 
dulgence, will  be  likely  to  lessen  the  evil,  but  we 
must  not  imagine  that  this  is  removing  the  cause. 
(2)  Argument  from  Deduction,  The  mental  pro- 
cess called  deduction  is  that  by  which  we  argue  or 
infer  a  specific  truth  from  a  more  general  truth,  or 
from  another  particular  truth,  or  from  some  combina- 
tion of  truths. 2  Its  object,  as  involved  in  the  ety- 
mology of  the  word,  is  to  lead  the  mind  down  from 
some  truth  to  other  truth.  And  so  in  some  sense 
every  species  of  argument  involves  a  deduction.  Thus 
the  a  priori  argument  is  a  deduction  from  cause  to 
effect,  the  argument  from  analogy  is  a  deduction 
from  the  relations  of  things,  and  the  argument  from 
testimony  is  a  deduction  from  the  statements  of  wit- 
nesses. But  there  are  many  deductions  which  do 
not  belong  to  these  special  classes,  but  are  infer- 
ences from  general  truths  which  have  been  in  some 
way  established.  This  is  the  commonest  form  of 
deductive  argument,  and  it  is  obvious  that  much  of 
all  our  reasoning  is  of  this  character.  Syllogistic 
reasoning  is  deduction  fully  and  formally  expressed; 
but  often  in  deductive  argument  one  or  another  of 
the  steps  is  not  fully  stated,  but  assumed,  either  as 
freely  admitted,  or  so  clear  as  not  to  need  formal 
statement.  The  reasoning  of  preachers  is  very 
largely  of  this  sort,  because  it  consists  chiefly  in 
deductions  or  inferences  from  Scripture.     Fully  ex- 

1  See  more  in  Whately,  p.  75  ff. 

2  Comp.  N.  K.  Davis'  Inductive  Logic,  p.  5. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        187 

pressed,  the  preacher's  syllogism  would  run  some- 
how thus: 

All  Scripture  is  true  and  obligatory; 
This  particular  doctrine  is  Scripture; 
Therefore  this  doctrine  is  true  and  obligatory. 

The  major  premise,  All  Scripture  is  true  and  obli- 
gatory, is  usually  and  properly  taken  for  granted  and 
not  expressed;  the  main  contention  in  preaching^ 
commonly  is  to  establish  the  minor  premise  that  the 
particular  doctrine  under  consideration  is  Scriptural, 
either  by  express  statement  or  by  legitimate  inference. 

Now  such  deductions  must  be  made  with  great  care. 
The  reply  often  heard  in  conversational  discussion, 
"  Ah,  but  that  is  only  an  inference  of  yours,"  shows 
the  common  feeling  as  to  the  danger  that  our  infer- 
ences will  be  far  less  certain  than  the  truths  from 
which  we  infer.  There  is  obviously  need  for  great 
care  that  the  deduction  shall  be  strictly  logical.  But 
another  thing  is  important.  In  Political  Economy,  it 
is  found  that  the  results  deduced  by  abstract  reason- 
ing from  general  principles  must  at  every  step  be 
compared  with  facts,  or  they  will  at  length  be  found 
to  have  gone  astray  from  actual  truth.  And  similarly 
in  religious  reasoning.  We  can  very  seldom  take  a 
general  truth  and  make  a  series  of  deductions  from  it 
as  is  done  in  Geometry,  and  feel  safe  as  to  the  results. 
We  must  constantly  compare  our  conclusions  with  the 
facts  of  existence  and  with  the  teachings  of  Scripture. 
The  love  of  purely  abstract  reasoning  leads  many 
minds  astray  as  to  religious  truth.  The  idea  of  es- 
tablishing some  truth  of  religion  by  "  a  perfect  dem- 
onstration "  is  commonly  delusive.  Human  life  is  not 
really  controlled  by  demonstrated  truth,  as  to  this 
world  or  the  next.  We  must  be  content  with  those 
practical  certainties  which  the  conditions  of  existence 


l88        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

allow  us  to  attain ;  and  while  constantly  drawing  in- 
ferences, as  it  is  right  we  should  do,  must  be  content 
to  compare  them  with  fact  and  Scripture,  to  make 
sure  that  they  are  correct. 

"  Pure  reasoning  handles  ideas  and  not  facts.  It  is 
a  sort  of  geometry  of  intellectual  space.  This  geom- 
etry, however,  is  less  certain  than  the  other,  the  im- 
port of  signs  here  being  less  invariable.  Hence  the 
necessity  of  not  coursing  entirely  through  the  void, 
and  of  descending  often  to  the  earth,  to  set  our 
feet  on  facts.  Otherwise,  we  run  the  risk  of  prov- 
ing too  much,  and  losing,  at  length,  the  sense  of 
reality.  At  the  end  of  the  most  sound  reasonings, 
when  the  reason  of  the  hearer  seems  to  be  over- 
come, something  more  intimate  than  logic  rises  up 
within  him,  and  protests  against  your  conclusions."  ^ 

(3)  Argument  from  Induction,  Induction  has  been 
variously  defined.  Thus  Mill  says  it  is  "the  opera- 
tion of  discovering  and  proving  general  propositions." 
But  this  is  rather  a  general  description  than  a  defini- 
tion. Another  statement  of  Mill  is  this :  "  Induction 
is  that  operation  of  the  mind  by  which  we  infer  that 
what  we  know  to  be  true  in  a  particular  case  or 
cases  will  be  true  in  all  cases  which  resemble  the 
former  in  certain  assignable  respects."  Professor 
N.  K.  Davis  ^  defines:  "Induction  is  an  imme- 
diate synthetic  inference  generalizing  from  and 
beyond  experience."  Every  term  in  this  state- 
ment is  important,  and  when  they  are  well  under- 
stood the  definition  will  be  found  to  be  exact  and 
complete. 

Induction  has  also  been  very  simply  defined  as 
"  the  process  of  drawing  a  general  rule  from  a  suffi- 

1  Vinet,  pp.  174,  175. 

2  Elements  of  Inductive  Logic,  pp.  6,  7,  where  a  number  of  other 
definitions  are  given. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  —  ARGUMENT.        189 

cient  number  of  particular  cases.  "^  Finding  some- 
thing to  be  true  of  certain  individual  objects,  we 
conclude  that  the  same  thing  is  true  of  the  whole 
class  to  which  those  individuals  belong,  and  after- 
wards prove  it  to  be  true  of  any  new  object,  simply 
by  showing  that  that  object  belongs  to  the  same 
class.  Induction  is,  in  popular  usage,  the  com- 
monest form  of  argument,  and  that  which  oftenest 
involves  error.  Men  in  general  do  not  argue  from 
general  principles  or  previously  established  truths 
nearly  so  often  as  from  examples.  These  examples 
they  indolently  observe,  and  without  extensive  com- 
parison or  careful  scrutiny,  they  hastily  infer  that 
what  a  certain  person  did  is  right  for  them,  that 
what  is  true  of  certain  individuals,  or  of  all  they 
happen  to  have  noticed,  is  true  of  all  the  class. 
When  they  are  strongly  impelled  to  wish  it  so,  as 
by  appetite,  interest,  or  prejudice,  and  thus  some 
powerful  feeling  combines  with  indolence,  it  is  not 
wonderful,  however  deplorable,  that  a  "  hasty  induc- 
tion "  is  the  result.  In  agriculture,  or  in  domestic 
medicine,  all  manner  of  rules  are  upheld  and  fol- 
lowed among  the  masses  of  men,  on  the  ground  of 
imperfect  observation  and  hasty  induction.  In  books 
of  travel,  universal  statements  are  constantly  made 
as  to  the  opinions,  usages,  and  character  of  a  people, 
which  are  founded  on  a  very  hasty  induction,  stimu- 
lated by  prejudice;  notable  examples  appearing  in 
English  books  about  America,  in  many  of  our  Eastern 
journals  when  speaking  of  the  West,  and  many 
Northern  jpurnals  when  speaking  of  the  South  ;2 
also  in  the  reports  of  Foreign  Missions  made  by 
some  infidel  or  irreligious  travellers.  From  the  fact 
that  negroes  have  never  been  highly  civilized,  it  is 

1  Fleming,  Vocab.  of  Phil.,  p.  252. 

2  And  no  doubt,  vice  versa. 


190        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

confidently  inferred  by  some  that  they  never  can  be; 
others  observe  the  gratifying  progress  in  knowledge 
made  in  a  short  time  by  a  few  colored  people,  and  at 
once  proclaim  that  they  are  naturally  a  highly  intel- 
ligent race.  Certain  choice  specimens  of  what  are 
called  "uneducated"  ministers,  surpass  some  very 
poor  specimens  of  the  "  educated,"  and  this  is  thought 
to  prove  that  ministerial  education  is  unnecessary; 
a  half-educated  young  preacher  makes  a  foolish  dis- 
play of  something  he  learned  at  college  or  seminary, 
and  this  shows  that  education  is  injurious.  But 
who  could  catalogue,  or  even  broadly  classify,  the 
instances  of  hasty  or  otherwise  unwarranted  induc- 
tion, which  make  up  so  sadly  large  a  portion  of 
human  reasoning?  Let  us  earnestly  strive,  as  a 
duty  to  our  own  minds  and  to  our  office  as  teach- 
ers of  truth,  to  guard  against  this  fruitful  source  of 
error. 

The  question  what  is  "a  sufficient  number  of 
cases "  to  warrant  our  drawing  a  general  rule,  de- 
pends upon  the  nature  of  the  subject-matter.  In 
regard  to  physical  facts  a  single  example  will  some- 
times suffice.  "A  chemist  who  had  ascertained,  in 
a  single  specimen  of  gold,  its  capability  of  combin- 
ing with  mercury,  would  not  think  it  necessary  to 
try  the  experiment  with  several  other  specimens, 
but  would  draw  the  conclusion  concerning  those 
metals  universally  and  with  practical  certainty."  ^ 
But  nothing  like  this  applies  to  social  facts,  or  to 
moral  and  religious  truth.  The  observation  of  a 
man's  whole  life,  of  a  neighborhood  through  many 
years,  or  of  the  entire  civilized  world  for  centuries, 
has  often  led  to  false  conclusions  as  to  physical  phe- 
nomena, or  as  to  questions  of  good  government  or 
social  welfare.     In  order  to  a  safe  induction,   one 

1  Whately,  p.  in. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        191 

must  not  merely  aggregate  a  number  of  instances; 
he  must  analyze  and  compare  them,  so  as  to  elim- 
inate what  is  merely  incidental,  and  ascertain  the 
"material  circumstances"  in  each  case.^  The  more 
clearly  we  can  discern  a  causal  relation,  accounting 
for  the  common  element,  the  smaller  the  number  of 
instances  necessary  to  establish  a  rule.  But  the 
cause  must  be  a  real  cause,  not  a  mere  hypothesis, 
not  a  matter  having  no  real  connection  with  the 
result  in  question,  nor  an  incidental  circumstance. 
As  an  example  of  the  last,  it  is  frequently  inferred 
that  something  found  true  in  several  cases  of  con- 
version, will  be  true  in  all  cases;  but  the  ques- 
tion is,  whether  this  is  something  founded  in  the 
essential  principles  of  human  nature,  or  merely  the 
result  of  peculiar  temperament,  education,  and  other 
circumstances. 

Aristotle  says,  "Induction,  except  in  a  few 
instances,  is  not  proper  to  rhetoric.  "^  As  the 
people  so  commonly  reason  in  this  way,  it  is  natural 
and  proper  that  they  who  speak  to  the  people  should 
wish  to  do  likewise,  and  especially  is  it  natural  that 
sophistical  or  inconsiderate  speakers  should  very 
often  introduce  hasty  inductions,  which  may  be 
readily  and  agreeably  presented,  and  will  be  easily 
accepted  by  hearers  to  whose  prejudices  they  con- 
form. Where  a  safe  induction  can  be  briefly  stated, 
it  is  eminently  proper  to  rhetoric;  yet  this  will  hap- 
pen in  comparatively  "few  instances."  Sometimes 
an  induction  fully  and  even  formally  stated,  will  be 
appropriate;  such  occasions,  however,  are  rare.  But 
in  addition  to  proving  by  arguments  of  other  kinds, 
we  may  quite  frequently  present  examples,  cases  in 

1  Comp.  Mill's  Logic,  Book  V.  chap.  v.  §  4;  and  Hamilton'g 
Logic,  p.  453. 

2  Rhetoric,  II.  20,  9. 


192        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

point,  which  will  not  merely  illustrate  what  we 
mean,  but  reinforce  the  proof  by  at  least  a  probable 
induction.  And  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  impor- 
tant that  we  should  know  how  to  correct  those  ten 
thousand  erroneous  inductions,  whether  in  the  argu- 
ments of  other  public  speakers,  in  newspapers  and 
conversation,  or  in  their  own  thinking,  by  which  the 
minds  of  our  hearers  are  so  apt  to  be  misled. 

(4)  Argument  from  Analogy,  Analogy  is  still  too 
often  confounded  with  resemblance,  notwithstand- 
ing the  earnest  efforts  of  Whately  and  some  other 
writers  to  confine  the  term  to  its  original  and  proper 
sense.  The  primary  meaning  of  the  word  is  pro- 
portiony  and  in  this  sense  only  is  it  employed  in 
mathematics.  It  denotes  not  a  resemblance  between 
objects  themselves,  but  a  correspondence  between 
their  ratios  or  relations  to  other  objects. ^  The  leg 
of  a  table  does  not  much  resemble  the  leg  of  an 
animal,  but  they  are  analogous,  because  the  former 
sustains,  in  several  respects,  the  same  relation  to  a 
table  that  the  leg  sustains  to  an  animal.  The  foot 
of  a  mountain  is  analogous  to  that  of  a  man,  though 
scarcely  at  all  similar.     "An  ^gg  and  a  seed  are  not 

1  Hamilton  (Logic,  pp.  453,  454)  asserts  the  strict  sense,  but  toler- 
ates and  adopts  the  loose  sense.  Buchanan  (Analogy  as  a  Guide  to 
Truth  and  an  Aid  to  Faith,  p.  59  £f.)  objects  to  Whately's  definition 
as  too  exclusive,  and  to  the  popular  usage  as  too  loose  and  vague. 
He  says  (p.  65)  that  analogy  *'  may  be  described  as  consisting  in  a 
real  and  radical  likeness  between  two  or  more  objects  of  thought, 
which  is  made  manifest  to  us  by  their  being  observed  to  possess  the 
same  characteristic  properties,  or  to  exhibit  similar  relations,  or  to 
produce  the  same  or  similar  effects."  In  the  second  clause  of  his 
definition  he  adopts  Whately's  view,  and  the  third  clause  is  really  a 
part  of  this,  for  producing  "  the  same  or  similar  effects  "  may  be 
included  under  having  "  similar  relations."  To  observe  objects  as 
possessing  "  the  same  characteristic  properties  "  is  really  a  part  of 
the  inductive  process,  and  should  be  distinguished  from  analogy 
proper.  Hence  Buchanan's  definition  does  not  mark  any  real  advance 
upon  that  of  Whately  adopted  above. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        I93 

in  themselves  alike,  but  bear  a  like  relation,  to  the 
parent  bird  and  to  her  future  nestling  on  the  one 
hand,  and  to  the  old  and  young  plant  on  the  other."  ^ 
But  analogous  objects  will  frequently  be  similar 
also,  and  this  fact  has  helped  to  obscure  to  men's 
minds  the  distinction  —  that  which  is  really  due  to 
the  analogy  being  sometimes  carelessly  ascribed  to 
the  resemblance.  Further,  an  analogy  is  often  all  the 
more  striking  from  the  fact  that  it  exists  between 
objects  which  in  some  other  respects  are  utterly 
unlike.  So  it  happens  that  failing  to  see  clearly 
the  difference  between  analogy  and  resemblance, 
and  observing,  besides,  that  the  term  analogy  is 
often  employed  where  there  is  in  some  respects  a 
great  dissimilarity,  many  persons  have  fallen  into 
the  habit  of  calling  objects  analogous  which  are 
similar  in  some  respects,  but  have  a  recognized 
difference  in  others.  Mill,  in  his  Logic,  puts  for- 
ward this  common  use  of  the  term  as  if  it  were 
legitimate,  and  unfairly  employs  it  for  the  purpose 
of  throwing  discredit  upon  all  arguments  from  anal- 
ogy. ^  Of  course  an  argument  from  a  mere  partial 
resemblance  between  objects  can  be  worth  but  little. 
But  very  different  may  be  the  case  where  there  is  a 
resemblance  (sometimes  even  an  identity)  in  the 
relation  which  two  objects  bear  to  a  third,  or  to 
two  others,  respectively.  Understand  analogy  in  this 
strict  and  proper  sense,  and  the  argument  from  anal- 
ogy may  have  great  force.  It  is  exceedingly  desir- 
able that  good  usage  should  restrict  the  term  to  its 
proper  meaning.  The  point  to  be  guarded  is,  never 
to  say  there  is  an  analogy  between  objects,  unless 
there  is  a  correspondence  (identity  or  similarity)  in 
their  relations  to  something  else,  however  like  or 

1  Whately,  p.  115. 
.  *  Mill's  Logic,  Book  III,  chap,  xx.,  and  Book  V.  chap.  v.  §  6. 

13 


194       SPECIAL  MATERIALS— ARGUMENT. 

however  unlike  the  objects  themselves  maybe.  Men 
are  the  slaves  of  words;  and  unless  the  thoughtful 
can  discern,  avoid,  and  correct  such  confusions  in 
the  popular  use  of  important  terms,  reasoning  to  a 
popular  audience  will  constantly  become  increasingly 
difficult. 

It  follows  that  we  must  carefully  avoid  the  ''error 
of  concluding  the  things  in  question  to  be  alike^  be- 
cause they  are  analogous ; "  and  that  it  is  very  unjust, 
when  a  man  has  argued  from  the  analogy  between 
two  objects,  to  charge  him  with  having  represented 
them  as  similar.  Moreover,  the  correspondence  be- 
tween the  relations  of  objects  which  are  seen  to  be 
analogous,  must  not  be  presumed  to  extend  to  all 
their  relations.  Thus,  because  a  just  analogy  has 
been  discerned  between  the  metropolis  of  a  country 
and  the  heart  of  the  animal  body,  the  inference  has 
been  sometimes  made  that  its  increased  size  is  a 
disease,  —  that  this  may  impede  some  of  its  most 
important  functions,  or  even  be  the  cause  of  its  dis- 
solution. ^  The  question  is,  in  what  respects  are  the 
relations  between  the  objects  similar.? 

A  large  proportion  of  the  metaphors  we  employ, 
rest  not  upon  resemblance,  but  upon  analogy.  For 
example,  **  He  is  the  pillar  of  the  State ;  "  *'  Paris  is 
the  heart  of  France."  All  mental  and  spiritual  states 
and  operations  are  expressed  by  terms  borrowed,  by 
analogy,  from  the  physical ;  all  that  we  know  of  the 
future  life,  by  terms  derived  from  analogous  objects 
or  relations  in  this  life.  The  sense  of  such  meta- 
phorical expressions  has  been  in  many  cases  fixed 
and  defined  by  usage,  so  that,  as  commonly  em- 
ployed, they  will  not  mislead;  but  whenever  we 
begin  to  reason  upon  them,  great  care  must  be 
taken  lest  we  extend  the  analogy  to  matters  which 

Bishop  Copleston,  in  Whately,  p.  ii6,  and  p.  492  ff. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.         195 

it  does  not  really  embrace.  So  with  the  terms  used 
to  describe  the  attributes  of  God,  and  his  relations  to 
his  creatures.  Thus  we  call  God  a  Father,  and  in 
certain  respects  Christ  reasons  from  earthly  fathers 
to  him.  Yet  if  we  infer  from  a  father's  forgiving  his 
child  upon  repentance,  without  satisfaction,  that  our 
Heavenly  Father  will  and  must  forgive  us  upon  repen- 
tance, without  need  of  an  atonement,  we  extend  the 
analogy  more  widely  than  is  warranted.  God  is  a 
Father,  but  is  also  a  King,  and  his  government  is 
not  a  system  of  imperfect  expedients,  but  must  con- 
sult the  requirements  of  absolute  justice. 

Has  the  argument  from  analogy  zny  positive  force? 
It  may  certainly  afford  a  probable  proof  of  positive 
truth.  When  two  objects  are  observed  to  be  analo- 
gous in  many  important  respects,  it  is  assuredly  more 
or  less  probable  that  they  are  also  analogous  in  some 
other  respect  not  observed.  But  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  this  can  in  any  case  be  an  absolute  proof. 
Many  results  of  induction,  as  we  have  seen  above,  are 
simply  in  a  high  degree  probable;  and  they  become 
certain  only  when,  besides  observing  that  the  instances 
examined  are  all  similar  in  a  certain  respect,  we  can 
also  discern  some  cause  of  that  similarity,  which  will 
operate  also  in  the  instances  not  examined.  Now  the 
same  thing  must  hold  in  the  case  of  analogy.  If  two 
objects  should  correspond  in  all  their  relations  to  cer- 
tain other  objects  so  far  as  we  can  examine,  and  if  we 
were  able  to  discern  some  cause  of  the  correspond- 
ence, such  as  must  produce  a  like  correspondence  in 
other  relations  not  examined,  then  we  might  infer 
with  certainty  that  in  any  of  these  other  relations 
they  do  correspond.  In  many  cases  of  Induction,  a 
cause,  or  at  least  an  explanation,  of  the  common  ele- 
ment can  be  found.  We  leave  it  a  question  whether 
the  same  can  ever  be  done  in  cases  of  Analogy.    Still, 


196       SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

an  argument  from  analogy  will  often  add  its  force  to 
that  of  other  proofs,  and  will  make  a  result  more  or 
less  probable,  even  where  no  other  proof  exists. 

But  chiefly  for  negative  purposes,  in  the  refutation 
of  objections,  is  the  argument  from  analogy  of  fre- 
quent and  high  utility,  "  like  those  weapons,  which 
though  they  cannot  kill  the  enemy,  will  ward  his 
blows."  ^  Butler,  in  his  immortal  work,  has  with 
great  power  refuted  objections  to  natural  religion 
by  the  analogy  of  nature,  and  objections  to  revealed 
religion  by  the  analogy  of  Providence.  We  must 
remember  that  Butler  was  arguing  against  the  Deists 
who  admitted  the  existence  of  God  as  Creator  and 
Moral  Governor,  but  brought  objections  against  both 
natural  and  revealed  religion.  If  men  say  it  would 
be  unjust  in  God  to  punish  them  for  violating  his  law 
when  they  did  not  believe,  or  did  not  certainly  know, 
that  it  was  his  law,  we  point  them  to  the  fact  that  this 
holds  of  physical  laws,  —  that  he  who  takes  poison  will 
be  killed,  even  though  he  did  not  know,  or  did  not 
believe,  that  it  was  poison.  If  they  object  that  God 
could  not  with  propriety  make  salvation  dependent 
upon  belief  of  the  gospel,  when  there  may  be  some 
doubt  as  to  whether  the  gospel  is  true,  we  remind 
them  that  bodily  hfe  is  often  dependent  upon  sending 
for  the  physician,  though  there  may  be  very  great 
doubt  as  to  whether  he  will  understand  and  remedy 
the  disease ;  we  have  to  risk  life  upon  a  probability, 
or  take  the  consequences.  If  they  object  to  the  doc- 
trine of  Original  Sin,  as  incompatible  with  God's  good- 
ness, we  point  to  inherited  disease,  inherited  proclivi- 
ties to  vice,  inherited  dishonor.  And  so  as  to  the  doc- 
trine of  Election.  From  the  great  inequalities  which 
exist  among  men  as  to  native  physical  powers,  intel- 
lect, moral  character,  and  the  influences  which  have  sur- 

1  Campbell,  Phil,  of  Rhet.,  p.  76. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        197 

rounded  their  childhood  as  well  as  their  age,  we  could 
not  with  anything  more  than  probability  infer,  as  a 
positive  proposition,  that  God  would  elect  some  men 
to  be  saved,  and  omit  others.  As  a  positive  argument 
it  would  be  weakened  by  the  fact  that  we  cannot  be 
certain  of  a  universal  analogy  between  God's  opera- 
tions in  the  sphere  of  creation  and  providence,  and 
his  operations  in  the  sphere  of  grace;  ^  and  also  by 
the  fact  that  the  widest  inequalities  of  earthly  life  are 
slight  compared  with  the  difference  between  salvation 
and  damnation.  But  when  to  the  doctrine  of  Election 
as  taught  in  Scripture  men  offer  the  objection  that  it  is 
inconsistent  with  the  divine  justice  to  make  such  a  dis- 
tinction, we  refute  the  objection  by  pointing  to  the  im- 
mense distinctions  which  God  certainly  does  make  in 
this  life. 

When  examples  are  invented  to  furnish  argument 
(and  not  merely  explanation,  ornament,  etc.),  it  must 
always  be  the  argument  from  analogy.  It  is  only 
necessary  that  the  supposed  case  should  be  probable. 
Induction  from  unreal  examples  would  of  course  be 
worthless ;  but  merely  probable  cases  may  afford  an 
analogy  to  the  matter  in  hand  which  will  be  in  a  high 
degree  convincing.^ 

The  analogy  of  real  and  of  invented  examples  is 
sometimes  employed  not  to  prove,  but  merely  to 
explain,  or  to  render  interesting.^ 

(5)  Argument  from  testimony.  It  would  be  con- 
venient if  the  words  testimony  and  authority  could  be 
kept  entirely  distinct,  the  former  applied  only  to 

1  This  is  the  fatal  objection  to  much  of  the  late  Professor  Drum- 
mond's  argument  in  his  famous  book,  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual 
World.  He  presses  analogy  to  practical  identity  of  law  in  the  two 
spheres. 

2  See  Whately,  p.  129  ff. 

8  As  to  the  objectionable  phrase,  "  the  analogy  of  faith,"  see  note 
p.  73  above. 


198       SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

matters  of  fact,  and  the  latter  only  to  matters  of 
judgment  and  opinion.^  Yet  common  usage  some- 
times confounds  these  terms,  even  as  men  are  very  apt 
not  to  distinguish  facts  from  their  own  judgments 
concerning  them.^  In  the  alleged  "  spiritual  mani- 
festations," of  which  so  much  has  been  said,  there 
is  unquestionable  testimony  that  tables  rise  and 
move,  without  the  application  of  any  apparent  and 
adequate  physical  force,  that  certain  peculiar  rap- 
ping sounds  are  heard,  and  that  other  strange  things 
occur.  Now  upon  the  testimony,  these  matters  of 
fact  should  be,  without  hesitation,  admitted.  But 
what  causes  these  movements  and  sounds,  whether 
some  unknown  physical  force,  or  some  unknown 
spiritual  agency,  is  purely  matter  of  opinion.  Those 
who  have  most  frequently  witnessed  the  phenomena, 
are  not  thereby  the  best  prepared  to  judge  of  their 
cause;  while  the  supposed  interpretation  of  the  rap- 
ping noises,  and  the  correspondence  of  such  inter- 
pretations with  facts  otherwise  known,  are  matters 
which  open  a  wide  door  for  all  manner  of  self- 
delusions  and  impostures.  We  must  accustom  our- 
selves, and  educate  the  people,  to  distinguish  more 
carefully  than  is  common  between  testimony  as  to 
matters  of  fact,  and  mere  judgments,  opinions,  and 
hypotheses  as  to  their  explanation. 

It  is  not  appropriate  here  to  discuss  the  general 
subject  of  testimony,  as  bearing  upon  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice.  And  yet  a  minister  does  well  to 
consider  carefully  the  rules  of  evidence  in  the  courts 
of  justice,  endeavoring,  in  every  case,  to  find  the 
principle  involved,  that  he  may  apply  it,  with  the 
necessary  adaptations,  to  the  matters  with  which  he 
is  concerned.     Those  parts  of  the  subject  with  which 

1  Day,  p.  138,  asserts  such  a  distinction  as  if  it  were  absolute. 

2  See  Whately,  pp.  79-83. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        199 

the  preacher  frequently  has  to  deal,  will  be  briefly 
treated. 

(a)  In  testimony  as  to  matters  of  fact,  the  points 
to  be  considered  are,  on  the  one  hand,  the  character 
and  number  of  the  witnesses,  and  on  the  other,  the 
character  of  the  things  attested. 

As  to  the  chamcter  of  the  witnesses,  we  of  course 
consider,  mainly,  their  veracity,  but  also  their  intel- 
ligence, and  opportunities  of  knowing  the  facts.  A 
large  number  of  witnesses  will  obviously  make  the 
evidence  stronger,  provided  they  speak  each  from 
his  own  knowledge,  and  not  from  what  others  have 
told  him.  When  there  are  several  such  independent 
witnesses,  their  testimony  will  differ  as  to  some 
points  of  detail.  Where  the  details  are  numerous, 
no  man  will  be  expected  to  remember  and  state  them 
all;  and  each  will  select  according  to  what  he  hap- 
pened to  observe,  or  what  specially  commended  itself 
to  his  mind,  or  what  he  has  had  frequent  occasion 
since  to  recall,  or  what  falls  in  with  the  general 
design  and  drift  of  his  statement,  or  is  suggested, 
point  after  point,  by  the  natural  association  of  ideas. 
If  all  were  to  agree  in  the  details  of  an  extended 
statement,  we  should  feel  sure  that  they  had  in  some 
way  learned  from  each  other,  or  had  all  drawn  from  a 
common  source.  These  principles  are  familiar  to 
the  English  and  American  mind.  Had  the  Ger- 
mans been  accustomed  to  trial  by  jury  (which  they 
have  had  only  since  1848),  we  should  probably  not 
have  found  so  many  able  scholars  among  them  deny- 
ing the  trustworthiness  of  the  gospel  narratives 
because  of  the  "  discrepancies  "  they  present.  These 
discrepancies,  nowhere  involving  real  contradiction, 
only  show  that  the  witnesses  are  independent,  and 
thus  immensely  strengthen  their  combined  testi- 
mony to  the  substantial  facts.     The  evidence  is  also 


200        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

Strengthened  by  manifestly  undesigned  coincidences. 
A  great  number  of  such  coincidences,  clearly  unde- 
signed, between  minor  statements  in  the  Epistles  of 
Paul  and  in  the  Acts,  have  been  exhibited  by  Paley, 
in  his  celebrated  "  Horae  Paulinae "  ("  Hours  with 
Paul  "),  a  work  which  admirably  fortifies  the  Chris- 
tian Evidences,  and  presents  the  most  useful  lessons 
as  to  the  value  of  testimony.  And  the  less  impor- 
tant in  itself  is  the  subject-matter  of  such  coinci- 
dences, the  more  certain  will  it  be  that  they  are 
undesigned.  In  such  a  case,  the  lightest  matters 
are  often  the  weightiest. 

The  unintentional  testimony  of  adversaries  is  fre- 
quently of  great  value.  Thus  the  opposers  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  early  centuries,  both  heathen  and 
Jewish,  in  endeavoring  to  account  for  the  miracles 
of  our  Lord  as  wrought  by  magic,  have  shown  that 
they  felt  it  impossible  to  deny  the  reality  of  the 
occurrences. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  to  be  considered  the 
character  of  the  things  attested.  Things  in  them- 
selves improbable  will  of  course  require  more  testi- 
mony in  order  to  gain  our  credence.  Such  is  the 
case  with  miracles.  Those  who  take  the  ground 
that  miracles  are  impossible,  beg  the  question,  and 
must  be  omniscient  in  order  to  make  sure  that  their 
position  is  correct.  But  miracles  are  in  themselves 
highly  improbable.  ^  That  some  spiritual  force  should 
so  counteract  the  operation  of  great  physical  forces 
as  for  a  time  to  prevent  their  otherwise  uniform 
results,  is  a  thing  which  we  are  naturally  slow  to 


1  The  late  Professor  Huxley,  in  his  controversy  with  Dr.  Wace 
(1888),  took  the  ground  that  the  improbability  oi  miracles  was  too 
great  to  be  overcome  by  the  evidence  in  their  favor.  But  who  is  to 
judge  as  to  the  value  of  the  evidence  "i  It  is  not  certain  that  a  de- 
votee of  physical  science  will  be  a  good  judge  of  historical  evidence. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        201 

believe.  This  improbability,  however,  is  greatly 
diminished  where  we  see  important  occasion  for 
such  interference,  as  where  miracles  are  wrought  to 
authenticate  a  revelation.  The  Christian  miracles 
have  not  only  this,  but  another  advantage.  The 
character  and  teachings  of  Christ  are  inseparably 
associated  with  miracles.^  He  who  denies  the 
miracles  denies  the  supernatural  origin  of  Christ's 
character  and  teachings,  and  must  then  account  for 
these  as  merely  human  and  natural,  which  the  ablest 
and  most  ingenious  infidels,  after  a  great  variety  of 
attempts,  have  utterly  failed  to  do.  So  the  question 
of  antecedent  probability  is  here  reduced  to  this: 
Which  is  more  improbable,  that  miracles  should 
have  been  wrought,  upon  such  occasion  as  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity;  or  that  the  character  and 
teachings  of  Christ  should  be  merely  human  and  of 
natural  origin.?  Thus  the  general  improbability  of 
miracles  is  in  this  case  much  lessened  by  the  ade- 
quate occasion  for  them,  and  then  is  more  than 
counterbalanced  by  a  yet  greater  improbability,  if 
they  be  denied. 

Moreover,  the  testimony  of  others  to  our  Lord's 
miracles  is  not  only  strong  and  unquestionable  in 
itself,  but  has  the  unique  and  invincible  reinforce- 
ment of  our  Lord's  own  testimony.  Jesus  professed 
to  work  miracles ;  he  cannot  by  possibility  have  been 
deceived  on  the  subject;  and  so,  either  he  did  work 
miracles,  or  he  was  a  bad  man.  Against  his  char- 
acter all  the  objections  to  miracles  must  shatter, 
like  surf  against  the  rock.  And  this  is  not  arguing 
in  a  circle;  not  proving  the  miracles  by  Christ,  and 
Christ  by  the  miracles.  The  concurrence  of  the  two 
makes  it  easy  to  account  for  both ;  the  denial  of  the 

1  This  argument  is  more  fully  presented  in  the  author's  "  Jesus  of 
Nazareth :  Three  Lectures." 


202        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

miracles  necessitates  conclusions  more  improbable 
than  the  miraculous. 

The  testimony  to  our  Lord's  resurrection  has  been 
often  and  thoroughly  discussed,^  and  shown  to  be 
irrefragable.  It  is  especially  strengthened  by  the 
great  slowness  of  belief  exhibited  by  the  disciples. 
"They  doubted,  that  we  might  not  doubt."  '-^ 

The  evidence  of  Christian  experience  ought  never 
to  be  overlooked.  The  believer  finds  a  change 
wrought  in  him  which  testifies  to  the  reality  and 
power  of  Christianity,  and  he  in  turn  bears  witness 
to  others  that  the  change  which  they  observe  in  him 
was  wrought  in  connection  with  believing. 

{b)  Matters  of  opinion,  as  distinguished  from 
matters  of  fact,  might,  as  above  remarked,  be  con- 
veniently designated  by  the  term  authority.  But 
this  term  is  sometimes  applied  to  testimony  as  to 
matters  of  fact,  especially  where  it  is  particularly 
strong  and  convincing  testimony,  and  is  also  fre- 
quently used  to  denote  some  combination  of  testimony 
as  to  fact,  and  reliable  judgment  or  opinion. 

The  so-called  authority  of  the  Fathers  must  be 
differently  regarded  in  different  cases.  As  to  the 
question,  What  books  were  of  apostolic  origin.?  they 
afford  us  testimony,  —  though  in  the  case  of  all  but 
the  earliest  Fathers  it  is  not  original  but  transmitted 
testimony,  —  and  also  the  authority  of  their  judg- 
ment as  to  the  weight  of  the  entire  evidence  known 
to  them,  only  a  part  of  which  do  they  hand  down  to 
us.  In  respect  to  such  questions  they  are  known  to 
have  been  very  critical,  and  we  may  well  attach  great 

1  Mention  may  be  made  of  that  piquant  little  work,  Sherlock's 
"  Trial  of  the  Witnesses,"  in  which  the  evidence  of  the  resurrection 
is  examined  according  to  the  forms  of  law.  See  also  Greenleaf,  and 
Milligan. 

"^  Some  of  the  views  here  presented  as  to  testimony,  and  some 
others,  will  be  found  in  Whately,  pp.  78-104. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.       203 

value  both  to  their  testimony  and  their  authority. 
But  concerning  the  interpretation  of  the  sacred  books, 
the  question  as  to  what  Scripture  teaches,  we  have 
only  their  authority,  their  judgment.  Most  of  them 
were  loose  interpreters,  and  they  were  all  greatly 
influenced  by  philosophical  opinions,  prejudices  of 
various  kinds,  and  especially,  with  rare  exceptions, 
by  an  extreme  fondness  for  allegory.  Except,  then, 
the  cases  in  which  familiarity  with  Greek,  with  an- 
cient customs,  and  the  like,  gives  special  weight  to 
the  opinions  of  a  Father,  their  authority  as  to  the 
meaning  of  Scripture  is  not  great,  and,  in  fact,  not 
justly  equal  to  that  of  some  later  writers. 

The  Scriptures  themselves  are  an  authority  indeed. 
All  that  they  testify  to  be  fact  is  thereby  fully 
proven,  all  that  they  teach  as  true  and  right  is 
thereby  established  and  made  obligatory.  There 
are  some  subjects  on  which  the  Bible  is  our  sole 
authority,  such  as  the  Trinity,  justification  by  faith, 
the  conditions  of  the  future  life,  and  the  positive 
ordinances  of  Christianity;  namely,  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  supper.  1  The  Christian  reasoner  should  seek 
fully  to  appreciate  this  unparalleled  authority,  and 
should  heedfully  observe  its  proper  relation  to  all 
other  means  of  proof.  ^ 

The  generally  received  opinions  of  mankind,  and 
the  proverbs  and  maxims  which  express  the  col- 
lective judgment  of  many,  have  a  greater  or  less 
authority  according  to  the  nature  of  the  case. 
Those,  for  example,  which  are  readily  attributable 
to  human  superstitions  or  selfishness  can  claim  but 
little  weight.  Proverbs,  or  what  the  common  people 
call  "old  sayings,"  are  very  often,  as  it  has  been 
remarked,  but  the  striking  expression  of  some  half 

1  Comp.  Porter's  Horn.  Lect.  XI. 

*  Comp.  above,  (2,)  and  also  §  6,  Order  of  Arguments. 


204        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

truth,  or  the  result  of  some  hasty  generalization,  and 
in  many  cases  they  can  be  matched  by  other  sayings 
to  precisely  the  opposite  effect.  ^ 

In  respect  to  the  whole  matter  of  evidence  and 
belief  it  is  important  to  bear  in  mind  the  relation 
between  belief  and  disbelief.  As  regards  many 
truths  of  Christianity,  he  who  disbelieves  them  is 
thereby  compelled  to  believe  something  which  shall 
take  their  place.  He  who  staggers  at  the  difficul- 
ties, real  or  alleged,  which  attach  to  the  Christian 
evidences,  must  not  forget  the  difficulties  of  infi- 
delity. We  must  believe  something,  must  believe 
something  as  to  the  problems  of  religion,  and  if  we 
go  away  from  Christ,  "to  whom  shall  we  go?  "  ^ 

§  4.      CERTAIN  FORMS   OF  ARGUMENT. 

We  have  hitherto  considered  the  principal  varieties 
of  argument  as  to  their  essential  nature.  But  several 
of  the  forms  which  arguments,  whatever  be  their 
material  and  character,  often  assume,  would  seem  to 
call  for  mention  and  explanation. 

There  is  a  form  of  argument  known  as  a  fortiori y 
i.  e.,  from  the  stronger  to  the  weaker.  This  shows 
that  something  is  true  in  a  less  probable  case,  real  or 
supposed,  and  then  insists  that  much  more  certainly 
must  it  be  true  in  a  more  probable  case.  This  form 
of  argument  is  a  favorite  one  with  orators,  and  is  very 
often  found  in  the  teachings  of  our  Lord  and  the 
apostles,  where  the  arguments  are  chiefly  analogical 
or  deductive  in  nature.  "  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know 
how  to  give  good  things  to  your  children,  how  much 
more  will  your  Heavenly  Father,"  etc.  **  If  God  so 
clothe  the   grass  of  the  field,  which   to-day  is,  and 

1  Comp.  on  Sources  of  Illustration,  chap.  viii.  §  2  (5). 

2  Comp.  Whately,  p.  102. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.       205 

to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven,  shall  he  not  much 
more  clothe  you,  O  ye  of  little  faith?  "  "  If  they  do 
these  things  in  the  green  tree,  what  shall  be  done  in 
the  dry?"  (Luke  xxiii.  31.)  **  He  that  spared  not 
his  own  Son,  but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how 
shall  he  not  with  him  also  freely  give  us  all  things?" 
(Rom.  viii.  32.)  "  For  if  the  word  spoken  by  angels 
was  steadfast,  and  every  transgression  and  disobedi- 
ence received  a  just  recompense  of  reward;  how 
shall  we  escape,  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation, 
which  at  the  first  began  to  be  spoken  by  the  Lord 
[t.  e.  the  Lord  Jesus],  and  was  confirmed  unto  us," 
etc.  (Heb.  ii.  2-4.)  "For  the  time  is  come  that 
judgment  must  begin  at  the  house  of  God :  and  if  it 
first  begin  at  us,  what  shall  the  end  be  of  them  that 
obey  not  the  gospel  of  God  ?  And  if  the  righteous 
scarcely  be  saved,  where  shall  the  ungodly  and  the 
sinner  appear?"  (i  Pet.  iv.  17,  iS.y  These  are 
but  a  few  examples  out  of  many.  They  should  im- 
press us  with  the  suitableness  of  such  arguments  in 
addressing  the  popular  mind. 

A  form  of  argument  from  progressive  approach  has 
been  pointed  out  and  well  illustrated  by  Whately. 
This  is  frequently  a  good  form  in  which  to  put  the 
argument  from  induction.  In  arguing  the  being  of 
a  God  from  the  general  consent  of  mankind,  we 
observe  that  in  proportion  as  men  have  become  culti- 
vated and  civilized,  their  ideas  of  the  unity  and  moral 
excellence  of  the  Deity  have  risen  higher ;  that  there 
is  a  progressive  tendeiicy  towards  the  most  exalted 
monotheism,  which  is  hence  inferred  to  be  true.  Or 
as  regards  religious  tolerance :  "  In  every  age  and 
country,  as  a  general  rule,  tolerant  principles  have 
(however  imperfectly)  gained  ground  wherever  scrip- 
tural  knowledge   has   gained   ground.     And  a  pre- 

1  See  Vinet,  pp.  193-196. 


206        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

sumption  is  thus  afforded  that  a  still  further  advance 
of  the  one  would  lead  to  a  corresponding  advance  in 
the  other."  ^ 

The  dilemma  presents  two  assumptions,  of  such  a 
a  character  that  one  or  the  other  must  be  true,  and 
yet  whichever  is  considered  true,  there  will  follow,  as 
a  deduction,  the  result  proposed.  Such  was  Gama- 
liel's argument  (Acts  v.  38,  39) :  **  If  this  counsel  or 
this  work  be  of  men,  it  will  come  to  nought :  but  if 
it  be  of  God,  ye  cannot  overthrow  it."  It  must  be 
either  from  men  or  from  God,  and  in  either  case  the 
conclusion  would  be,  "  Refrain  from  these  men,  and 
let  them  alone."  ^  The  dilemma  is  most  commonly 
but  not  exclusively  employed  for  the  purpose  of 
refutation. 

In  like  manner,  the  reductio  ad  absurdum  (reduc- 
tion to  the  absurd)  is  most  frequently  but  not  always 
used  for  refutation,^  that  is,  in  moral  reasoning; 
Euclid  uses  it  very  frequently  for  indirect  demon- 
stration. When  it  is  argued  that  we  ought  not  to 
send  the  gospel  to  the  heathen,  because  if  they  reject 
it,  their  guilt  and  doom  will  be  so  much  aggravated, 
we  answer  that  upon  that  principle,  the  gospel  ought 
not  to  be  preached  to  the  destitute  at  home,  nor  to 
any  one,  and  it  is  a  pity  there  ever  was  a  gospel. 
The  principle  which  necessarily  leads  to  such  an 
absurdity,  must  be,  by  analogy  or  deduction,  in  itself 
erroneous. 

The  argument  ex  concesso,  from  something  con- 
ceded by  the  opponent,  or  known  to  be  admitted 
by  the  persons  addressed,  may  be  employed  as  a  de- 
ductive argument  not  only  for  refutation,  but  also  to 

1  Whately,  pp.  104-109. 

^  We  are  not  here  inquiring  whether  Gamaliel's  assumptions  are 
correct. 

^  Comp.  above,  §  i,  (3). 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.         20/ 

establish  positive  truth,  when  we  are  satisfied  that 
the  thing  admitted  is  really  true. 

The  argun\ent  adhominem  is  legitimately  employed 
only  in  refutation,  and  will  be  explained  under  that 
head.^ 

Arguments  of  different  kinds,  as  to  nature  or  form, 
will  often  be  combined  in  one  complex  argument 

Different  speakers  will  prefer  one  or  another  spe- 
cies of  argument  according  to  their  mental  constitu- 
tion and  other  circumstances,  and  a  man  will  be  apt 
to  manage  best  that  which  he  prefers.  But  this  pref- 
erence should  never  become  exclusive,  or  it  will  make 
the  mind  one-sided.  Besides,  it  is  necessary  to  con- 
sider what  species  of  argument  will  best  suit  the 
mental  constitution,  intelligence,  and  tastes  of  the 
audience.  We  should  therefore  habitually  seek  to 
draw  arguments  from  a  variety  of  sources,  and  throw 
them  into  various  forms. 


§  5.      REFUTATION. 

(i)  It  is  frequently  a  sufficient  refutation  of  error 
to  prove  the  opposite  truth ;  and  this  is  then  greatly 
to  be  preferred.  The  error,  without  mention,  just 
falls  away,  and  is  thought  of  no  more.  But  such  a 
course  will  not  always  suffice.  The  arguments  of 
adversaries  must  often  be  met,  and  objections  to  the 
truth  must  still  oftener  be  removed.  In  controversial 
sermons,  though  the  preacher  may  have  no  actual 
antagonist,  yet  there  are  arguments  well  known  to  be 
used  in  favor  of  a  different  view,  and  which  he  must 
refute ;  "  that  he  may  be  able  with  the  sound  teach- 
ing both  to  exhort,  and  to  refute  the  gainsayers. 
For  there  are  many  unruly  vain  talkers  and  deceiv- 
ers ..  .  whose  mouths  must   be  stopped."  ^     Right 

1  See  below,  §  S,  (6).  «  Tit.  i.  9-11. 


208        SPECIAL   MATERIALS —  ARGUMENT. 

feelings  towards  those  who  are  in  error  will  render 
this  necessary  task  a  painful  one.  But  naturally,  all 
men  take  pleasure  in  conflict.  "  We  are  more  in- 
clined to  refute  than  to  prove,  to  destroy  than  to 
build  up.  It  is  more  easy,  more  flattering  to  self- 
love,  more  in  accordance  with  our  natural  passions. 
Every  one  is  eloquent  in  anger ;  love  and  peace  sel- 
dom make  men  eloquent."^  The  audience,  too,  are 
thus  readily  aroused.  Everybody  will  run  to  see  a 
fight.  And  he  who  assumes  the  character  of  a  fear- 
less defender  of  unpopular  doctrines,  a  martyr-spirit, 
readily  gains  from  the  unthinking  a  species  of  sym- 
pathy and  admiration.  These  things  being  so,  we 
must  carefully  guard  against  the  temptation  to  assail 
others  where  it  is  not  really  necessary.  We  must 
keep  uppermost  in  our  minds  the  desire  to  establish 
truth,  and  let  refutation  be  strictly  and  manifestly 
subordinate.^ 

But  apart  from  controversy,  and  where  we  have  no 
real  antagonist,  there  will  be,  in  preaching,  very  fre- 
quent occasion  for  refuting  objections  to  the  truth  we 
advocate.  It  is  better,  whenever  consistent  with  the 
known  facts,  to  treat  these  as  the  objections,  not  of  a 
caviller,  but  of  an  honest  inquirer.  Instead  of  assail- 
ing the  supposed  objector  and  attempting  to  conquer 
him,  let  us  approach  him  kindly  and  seek  to  win  him 
to  the  truth. 

(2)  In  moral  reasoning,  one  cannot  always,  as  in 
Geometry,  give  a  complete  refutation  of  all  objec- 
tions. Sometimes  they  are  too  weak  to  be  refuted. 
He  who  does  not  at  once  see  their  absurdity  or  noth- 
ingness, can  scarcely  be  made  to  see  it  at  all.  You 
pierce  the  phantom  through  and  through  with  your 
sword,  but  there  it  stands.     Or  you  perceive  that  the 

1  Vinet,  p.  177. 

2  Comp.  on  Polemical  Subjects,  chap.  iii.  §  2. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        209 

objection  is  really  a  pretence  or  a  delusion  on  the 
part  of  men  who  are  opposed  to  the  truth  on  grounds 
they  do  not  state  —  perhaps  the  last  refuge  of  one 
determined  not  to  yield.  Alas !  for  the  frequency 
with  which  we  are  reminded  of  the  couplet: 

"  He  that  complies  against  his  will 
Is  of  his  own  opinion  still."  ^ 

Besides,  there  are  objections  to  everything. 
Whately  was  fond  of  quoting  a  saying  of  Dr.  John- 
son, '*  There  are  objections  to  a  plenum  and  objec- 
tions to  a  vacuum ;  yet  one  or  the  other  must  be 
true."  The  reason  for  believing  any  proposition  in 
moral  truth  consists  of  the  arguments  in  favor  of  it, 
minus  the  objections,  refuted  as  far  as  practicable. 
"The  objection  perhaps  may  be  unanswerable,  and 
yet  may  safely  be  allowed,  if  it  can  be  shown  that 
more  and  weightier  objections  lie  against  every  other 
supposition.  This  is  a  most  important  caution  for 
those  who  are  studying  the  Evidences  of  Religion. 
Let  the  opposer  of  them  be  called  on,  instead  of  con- 
fining himself  to  detached  cavils,  and  saying  *  how  do 
you  answer  this? '  and  *how  do  you  explain  that?  '  to 
frame  some  consistent  hypothesis  to  account  for  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  by  human  means ;  and 
then  to  consider  whether  there  are  more  or  fewer 
difficulties  in  his  hypothesis  than  in  the  other."  ^ 

It  follows  that  we  must  not  waste  time  in  the  refu- 
tation of  trifling  objections;  nor  mention  objections 
which  would  never  trouble  the  minds  of  the  hearers, 
and  which  furnish  no  sufficient  ground  for  doubting 
the  truth.  Hervey  well  says :  ^  "  Let  obsolete  errors 
alone,  and  reason  against  such  only  as  are  great,  prev- 
alent, and  dangerous."      Nor  should  we  attempt  to 

1  Butler's  Hudibras,  Part  IIL  Canto  III. 

2  Whately,  p.  188.     Comp.  above,  on  Testimony,  §  3,  (5). 
8  Christian  Rhetoric,  p.  240. 

14 


210        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

refute  objections  unless  we  can  do  so  satisfactorily. 
It  is  sometimes  better  to  say,  "  Well,  that  is  an  objec- 
tion to  my  proposition,  I  grant;  but  then  the  propo- 
sition must  be  true,  as  the  arguments  in  favor  of  it 
show."  If  the  objections,  or  the  arguments  for  a  con- 
tradictory proposition,  are  really  convincing,  it  is  the 
manifest  duty  of  one  who  loves  truth,  and  would  seem 
especially  incumbent  on  a  preacher,  to  acknowledge 
himself  convinced,  and  so  far  as  this  matter  goes,  to 
change  his  ground. 

(3)  When  objections  are  discussed,  they  should  be 
stated  in  full  force.  This  is  simply  just,  and  is  also 
obviously  good  policy.  "  Express  it  precisely  as  you 
believe  it  to  be  in  the  hearer's  mind,  so  that,  listening 
to  your  exposition  of  it,  he  may  say  to  himself,  *  That 
is  exactly  my  objection;  that  is  precisely  my  diffi- 
culty, and  I  should  wish  very  much  to  hear  how  the 
preacher  will  clear  it  up.'  "  ^ 

(4)  Refutation,  whether  of  an  erroneous  pro- 
position, or  of  an  objection  to  the  truth,  will  be 
accomplished  by  showing  either  that  the  terms  are 
ambiguous,  the  premises  false,  the  reasoning  un- 
sound, or  the  conclusion  irrelevant.  Sometimes  that 
which  is  presented  as  an  objection  may  be  very  true, 
but  may  not  really  conflict  with  the  proposition  under 
consideration. 

"  In  all  cases  in  which  it  seems  necessary,  we  must 
divide  the  difficulty.  Refutation  ordinarily  gains  by 
a  division  of  the  objection.  It  is  seldom  that  one 
reply  alone  can  demolish  directly  with  a  single  stroke 
all  parts  of  the  error.  .  .  .  The  hearer  sees  you  con- 
quer many  times  in  succession;  he  perceives  that 
there  are  many  errors  on  the  other  side,  and  many 
truths  on  yours."  ^ 

1  Potter's  Sacred  Eloquence,  p.  179.  The  sermons  of  the  late 
Canon  H.  P.  Liddon  afford  instructive  illustration  of  this. 

2  Vinet,  p.  179. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        211 

*'  We  must  know  how  to  take  the  offensive,  and,  if 
possible,  turn  the  objection  into  a  proof.  Prolong- 
ing the  defensive  enfeebles  us;  and  to  defend  our- 
selves to  advantage,  we  must  make  the  attack.  Great 
preachers  have  always  observed  this  rule.  In  the 
error  which  we  decompose  or  attack,  we  should  find 
the  very  germs  of  truth."  ^  The  lamented  Addison 
Alexander,  in  his  sermons  and  commentaries,  ex- 
hibits remarkable  skill  in  thus  turning  objections  into 
proof.  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  an  apposite 
Scripture  example  of  the  same  method. 

(5)  Refutation  of  an  error  is  sometimes  strength- 
ened by  showing  how  the  error  may  have  originated. 
Thus  an  opposer  of  Infant  Baptism,  after  disposing 
of  such  passages  from  the  New  Testament  as  may 
have  been  presented  in  proof  of  it,  breaks  the  force 
of  any  argument  derived  from  its  present  and  long- 
continued  existence,  by  pointing  out  how  it  may  have 
arisen  in  the  second  or  third  century. 

(6)  It  is  often  advantageous  to  have  recourse  to 
indirect  refutation.  The  principal  species  of  this, 
reductio  ad  absurdum,  has  been  already  discussed.^ 
The  argument  ad hominem,  **  to  the  man,"  can  scarcely 
ever  be  properly  employed  to  establish  positive 
truth.  An  appeal  to  the  hearer's  peculiar  opinions, 
position,  or  mode  of  reasoning,  in  order  to  make  him 
believe  something,  is  almost  necessarily  improper. 
But  in  refutation,  in  dealing  with  those  unreasonable 
objectors  **  whose  mouths  must  be  stopped,"  it  is 
perfectly  appropriate  and  may  be  highly  effective. 
Such  is  our  Lord's  argument  in  Matt.  xii.  27,  "  If  I 
by  Beelzebub  cast  out  devils,  by  whom  do  your  chil- 
dren cast  them  out?"  He  is  not  saying  that  the 
disciples  of  the  Pharisees  really  do  cast  out  demons, 
but  simply  shutting   their  mouths  by  an  argument 

1  Vinet,  p.  179.  2  See  above,  §  4. 


212        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

ad  hominem.  So  likewise  in  i  Cor.  xv.  29,  *'  Else 
what  shall  they  do  which  are  baptized  for  the  dead, 
if  the  dead  rise  not  at  all?  why  are  they  then  bap- 
tized for  them?"  the  apostle  silences  certain  objec- 
tors to  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  by  pointing  to 
the  superstitious  practice  encouraged  by  them,  of 
baptizing  living  persons  in  behalf  of  those  who  had 
died  unbaptized,  —  a  practice  which  we  know  to  have 
existed  in  the  next  century.  He  does  not  present 
this  as  an  argument  to  prove  the  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  true,  but  simply  as  an  ad  hominem  argu- 
ment to  stop  the  mouths  of  unreasonable  opponents. 
And  his  own  condemnation  of  the  superstitious  prac- 
tice need  not  be  stated,  for  at  Corinth  it  would  be 
well  understood.  This  is  one  of  the  points  to  be 
guarded  in  using  the  form  of  argument  in  question; 
we  must  not  seem  to  approve  the  position  or  practice 
to  which  we  appeal.  We  must  also  take  pains  to 
use  the  argument  fairly.  **  It  does  not  follow  from 
a  man's  having  been  of  a  different  opinion  formerly, 
that  he  is  wrong  in  thinking  as  he  now  does.  A 
man  is  often  reproached  for  making  progress,  when 
reproached  with  inconsistency."  ^ 

It  is  sometimes  convenient  to  show  that  an  oppo- 
nent's premise  is  wrong,  by  showing  that  it  "  proves 
too  much,"  i.  e.  "  that  it  proves,  besides  the  conclu- 
sion drawn,  another  which  is  manifestly  inadmissible."  ^ 

Irony,  as  a  means  of  making  an  opponent  or  an 
error  ridiculous,  is  certainly  allowable  in  serious  dis- 
course, for  we  have  a  famous  example  in  Elijah's 
address  to  the  priests  of  Baal.^  It  is  employed  with 
great  effect  against  certain  modern  forms  of  infidelity, 
in  Henry  Rogers'  "  Eclipse  of  Faith."  Though  it  be 
not  true  that  **  ridicule  is  the  test  of  truth,"  it  is  cer- 

1  Vinet,  p.  185.     See  his  whole  discussion,  pp.  183-186. 

2  Whately,  p.  182.  ^  i  Kings  xviii.  27. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        213 

tainly  a  very  effective  means  of  refuting  pretentious 
falsehood.  If  a  serious  subject  is  involved,  the  per- 
sons refuted  by  means  of  irony  will  of  course  com- 
plain loudly  that  it  is  irreverent,  and  some  good 
people  may  think  likewise;  but  this  only  makes  it 
proper  to  be  careful  that  we  do  not  say  anything  which 
really  does  make  a  serious  subject  ridiculous.  It  is 
obvious  that  an  ironical  passage  in  a  sermon  ought, 
save  in  very  peculiar  cases,  to  be  quite  brief.^ 

Akin  to  the  indirect  method  of  refutation,  is  a  cer- 
tain sophistical  method,  "  consisting  in  counter-objec- 
tions urged  against  something  else  which  is  taken  for 
granted  to  be,  though  it  is  not,  the  only  alternative. 
....  It  is  thus  that  a  man  commonly  replies  to  the 
censure  passed  on  any  vice  he  is  addicted  to,  by  rep- 
resenting some  other  vice  as  worse ;  e,  g.  if  he  is 
blamed  for  being  a  sot,  he  dilates  on  the  greater 
enormity  of  being  a  thief;  as  if  there  were  any  need 
he  should  be  either."  ^  So  likewise  when  we  object 
to  the  popular  dancing,  there  are  those  who  reply 
that  it  would  be  greatly  worse  to  spend  the  time  in 
talking  scandal. 

(7)  Too  elaborate  and  vehement  refutation  may 
sometimes  defeat  its  own  design.  Not  only  because 
it  arouses  deep-seated  prejudices,  but  because,  by 
overwhelming  and  utterly  crushing  an  error,  we  may 
make  persons  unwilling  to  acknowledge  that  an  opin- 
ion they  have  entertained  is  so  preposterous,  and 
therefore  unwilling  to  admit  that  the  refutation  is 
just.^  Thus  in  condemning  the  "  accommodation  " 
of  texts,  if  one  grows  indignant,  and  declares  the 
practice  to  be  inexpressibly  foolish  and  wicked,  some 
of  those  who  have  indulged  in  it  are  repelled,  and 
refuse  to  acknowledge  that  it  is  wrong  at  all. 

1  Comp.  Whately,  pp.  183-187.  ^  /^.^  pp.  188,  189. 

8  Id.,  pp.  193-198. 


214       SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

(8)  A  successful  refutation  is  apt  to  carry  the 
sympathies  of  the  hearers,  as  men  usually  sympa- 
thize with  the  victorious.  And  influenced  by  this 
feeling,  they  often  over-estimate  the  extent  of  the 
refutation.  All  the  arguments  advanced  in  favor  of 
a  proposition  may  have  been  refuted,  and  yet  the 
proposition  may  be  true,  on  grounds  not  mentioned. 
Still,  if  the  advocates  of  a  view  are  able  men,  it  is 
natural  to  suppose  that  they  have  not  omitted  the 
only  convincing  arguments  on  their  side,  and  so  there 
is  not  here  any  great  danger  of  error.  But  in  another 
way  there  is  very  great  danger.  When  the  opponent 
readily  and  overwhelmingly  refutes  some  of  the  argu- 
ments presented,  and  then  with  a  lofty  carelessness 
remarks  that  in  like  manner  all  the  rest  could  be  re- 
futed if  it  were  worth  while,  the  great  mass  of  men 
will  believe  it  to  be  even  so,  and  regard  him  as  tri- 
umphant. Hence  it  is  of  great  importance  not  to 
employ  doubtful  proofs,  and  in  presenting  those 
which  afford  only  a  probability  or  a  presumption  to 
point  out  distinctly  that  such  is  the  case.  Otherwise 
the  sophistical  adversary  will  refute  the  weak  proofs, 
or  show  that  the  merely  probable  ones  establish  noth- 
ing, and  then  if  he  does  not  assert,  will  leave  it  to  be 
taken  for  granted,  that  our  other  proofs  are  of  the 
same  character. 

This  has  often  happened  with  reference  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Divinity  of  Christ.  Every  passage  which 
at  all  appears  to  teach  the  doctrine  being  adduced, 
the  Socinian  can  show  that  many  of  them  are  exceed- 
ingly doubtful,  and  many  others  can  be  differently 
understood,  until  unthinking  persons  would  suppose 
that  he  had  completely  destroyed  the  argument,  or 
reduced  it  to  but  a  few  passages.  Now  if  one  wishes 
a  climax,  he  may  begin  by  showing  that  a  great 
number  of  passages  seem  to  involve  the  doctrine,  and 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        215 

that  many  others  make  it  extremely  probable,  and 
then  produce  some  that  are  conclusive.  But  it  is 
often  better,  especially  in  a  sermon,  to  present  a  few 
strong  proofs,  and  then  point  out  in  general  that  this 
doctrine  lies  everywhere  on  the  surface  of  the  New 
Testament,  so  that  the  common  reader  naturally  gets 
the  idea ;  nay,  that  it  pervades  the  whole  warp  and 
woof  of  New  Testament  teaching,  which  would  be 
torn  to  fragments  in  removing  it.^  So  in  all  other 
discourses  upon  topics  involving  much  controversy. 
Take  no  ground  which  you  cannot  hold.  It  may 
look  very  brave  to  assume  an  advanced  position,  but 
if  you  are  flanked  out  of  it  there  will  be  a  great 
shout  of  triumph.  And  distinguish  carefully  between 
proofs  which  yield  a  probability  —  for  that  purpose 
they  are  very  useful  —  and  those  which  are  regarded 
as  conclusive.  Even  where  there  is  no  controversy, 
duty  to  one's  own  mind  and  to  the  mind  of  his  hear- 
ers, and  devotion  to  the  truth,  require  that  no  greater 
stress  should  ever  seem  to  be  laid  on  any  argument 
than  it  deserves.  '*  One  false  or  foolish  proof  lays 
the  whole  discourse  open  to  suspicion;  it  inspires 
our  hearers  with  a  contempt  for  ourselves  and  our 
doctrine,  and  it  is  frequently  the  only  part  which  they 
retain  and  of  which  they  speak."  ^ 

In  consequence  of  the  ignorance,  the  slothfulness, 
the  prejudices,  and  the  frequent  deceitfulness  of  men, 
human  reasoning  greatly  abounds  in  Fallacies.  We 
must  learn  to  avoid  these  ourselves,  and  to  detect  and 
expose  them  in  others.  For  this  purpose  it  is  espe- 
cially important  to  study  systems  of  Logic,  as  training 
the  mind  to  distinguish  between  sound  and  fallacious 

1  With  reference  to  this  important  doctrine  the  suggestion  may  be 
repeated,  that  the  mode  of  discussion  proper  to  a  theological  treatise 
often  requires  great  modification  in  a  popular  discourse. 

2  Potter,  Sac.  Eloq.  p.  151. 


2l6        SPECIAL   MATERIALS— ARGUMENT. 

reasoning.  It  is  painful  when  ow^  feels  that  there  is 
something  wrong  in  an  argument,  but  cannot  see 
what ;  or  when  he  sees  it  himself,  but  cannot  explain 
the  fallacy  to  others.  This  explanation,  it  may  be  re- 
marked, is  often  best  made  by  constructing  a  similar 
argument  out  of  matter  more  familiar  to  the  common 
mind.  ^ 

§  6.      ORDER  OF  ARGUMENTS. 

The  order  of  arguments  is  scarcely  less  important 
than  their  individual  force.  The  superiority  of  an 
army  to  a  mob  is  hardly  greater  than  the  advantage 
of  a  well-arranged  discourse  over  a  mere  mass  of 
scattered  thoughts.  The  question  what  arrangement 
is  to  be  preferred  in  any  particular  case,  must  depend 
upon  a  variety  of  circumstances.  Here,  as  every- 
where in  rhetoric,  we  can  only  lay  down  rules  as  to 
what  is  generally  best.^ 

It  is  obvious  that  the  several  distinct  arguments 
should  be  kept  separate.  But  in  the  practice  of  in- 
experienced reasoners  it  is  not  uncommon  to  see  por- 
tions of  two  different  arguments  combined,  and  two 
parts  of  the  same  argument  separated  by  the  inter- 
position of  other  matter. 

The  consideration  which  must  principally  deter- 
mine the  order  of  arguments  is  their  natural  relation 
to  each  other.  **  Some  proofs  are  explained  by  others, 
which  must  be  previously  exhibited  in  order  to  the 
full  effect  of  the  reasoning.  Some  proofs  presuppose 
others.     Some,  once  more,  have  great  weight  if  pre- 

1  Mill's  discussion  of  Fallacies,  Logic,  Book  V.,  contains  much 
that  is  quite  valuable.  He  thinks  that  the  commonest  of  all  fallacies 
is  petitio  principii  (begging  the  question).  See  also  McCosh's  Logic, 
p.  169;  Jevons*  Logic,  Lessons  XX.,  XXL;  N.  K.  Davis'  Elements 
of  Deductive  Logic,  p.  183  ff.,  and  Theory  of  Thought,  p.  252  £f. 

2  The  larger  topic  of  the  Arrangement  of  a  Sermon  will  be  dis- 
cussed below,  in  Part  11.    Comp.  Phelps,  p.  418,  and  Day,  p.  152. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        21/ 

ceded  by  certain  others,  and  are  of  little  moment 
unless  preceded  by  them."  ^ 

Proofs  which  spring  from  the  very  nature  of  the 
proposition  should  commonly  come  first,  because  the 
exhibition  of  these  will  involve  a  full  explanation  of 
the  proposition,  and  '*  after  such  an  explanation  the 
relevance  and  force  of  every  other  proof  will  be  more 
clearly  seen."^ 

Arguments  a  priori  generally  precede  others,  as 
they  prepare  the  mind  more  readily  to  receive  the 
a  posteriori  proofs.  Thus  after  presenting  the  a  priori 
probability  that  a  revelation  would  be  given  to  man, 
and  further,  that  such  a  revelation  would  be  accom- 
panied by  miracles,  we  may  gain  a  hearing  for  the 
testimony  that  miracles  have  been  wrought,  and  in 
connection  with  them  a  revelation  has  been  given. 
Here  the  testimony  falls  in  with  an  antecedent  proba- 
bility. But  if  we  first  bring  forward  the  testimony 
that  miracles  have  taken  place,  "  as  insulated  occur- 
rences, without  any  known  or  conceivable  purpose," 
it  has  to  encounter  a  powerful  antecedent  probability 
against  miracles.^  There  are  cases,  however,  in  which 
it  is  better  to  present  first  some  more  tangible  and 
popular  proof  of  a  proposition,  as  from  testimony 
or  from  example,  and  then  show  that  this  need 
not  surprise  us  when  we  look  at  certain  a  priori 
considerations. 

It  is  usually  best,  where  nothing  forbids,  to  begin 
with  the  weakest  arguments  used  and  end  with  the 
strongest,  thus  forming  a  climax ^  the  power  of  which 
is  well  understood. 

But  we  must  sometimes  depart  from  the  order 
which  would  be  fixed  by  the  natural  dependence  of 
the  arguments  upon  each  other,  because  of  the  known 
disposition  of  the  hearers.     If  they  are  unfriendly  to 

1  Day,  p.  153.        2  Day^  p^  j^^.  See  Whately,  pp.  169,  170. 


2l8        SPECIAL    MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

our  views,  it  is  well  to  begin  with  one  or  more  strong 
arguments,  well  suited  to  their  minds,  so  as  to  com- 
mand respect  and  secure  attention.  We  may  next, 
according  to  the  precept  of  the  ancient  rhetoricians, 
throw  in  the  less  important  matter,  and  close  with  the 
strongest  of  all,  for  the  sake  of  the  final  impression ; 
or,  beginning  with  the  strongest  arguments,  and  add- 
ing less  important  but  confirmatory  considerations,  we 
may  at  the  close  recapitulate  in  the  reverse  order, 
and  thus  gain  the  effect  of  a  climax.^ 

What  position  shall  be  occupied  by  arguments 
from  Scripture,  relatively  to  those  drawn  from  reason 
and  experience?  To  begin,  as  is  not  unfrequently 
done,  with  plain  proofs  from  Scripture,  and  then  add 
further  proofs  from  reason,  history,  common  expe- 
rience, and  the  like,  seems  derogatory  to  the  authority 
of  God's  Word.  When  a  thing  has  been  proven  by 
that  Word,  then  for  the  preacher  the  question  is 
settled ;  he  cannot  admit,  he  must  not  seem  to  admit, 
that  there  is  any  need  of  further  argument.  So  far, 
then,  it  would  appear  that  Scripture  proofs  should 
regularly  follow  others.  But  there  will  be  cases  in 
which  this  is  awkward ;  and  besides,  to  some  of  the 
hearers  proofs  from  reason  may  be  more  convincing, 
or  proofs  from  experience  more  impressive,  than  the 
plainest  declarations  of  the  Bible.  To  meet  these 
conditions  we  may  begin  with  the  Scripture  teachings, 
and  then  observe  that  here,  as  in  fact  everywhere, 
reason  and  experience  are  in  harmony  with  the  Bible, 
and  so  proceed  to  the  arguments  from  those  sources. 
In  this  way  we  conform  to  the  hearer's  mode  of 
thinking  and  feeling,  and  end  with  that  which  will 
make  the  strongest  impression  on  him,  without 
abandoning  our  own  position  as  to  the  supremacy  of 
Scripture,  —  a  position  which  even  infidels  will  feel 

1  Comp.  Whately,  p.  201. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.        219 

that  the  preacher  himself  ought  to  maintain.^  To 
hold  firmly  our  own  ground,  and  yet  put  ourselves  as 
far  as  possible  in  sympathy  with  the  persons  we 
would  win,  is  a  thing  often  demanded  in  preaching, 
and  is  an  achievement  worthy  of  much  thoughtful 
effort. 

In  what  part  of  a  discourse  shall  the  refutation  of 
objections  be  placed?  ''When  an  objection  lies 
against  the  view  advanced  in  a  certain  part  of  the 
sermon,  it  should  obviously,  for  the  efficiency  of  that 
part,  be  disposed  of,  though  as  briefly  as  possible, 
before  passing  to  another  point."  ^  If  objections  lie 
against  the  general  sentiment  of  the  sermon,  and  they 
can  be  refuted  independently  of  the  discussion,  and 
briefly,  it  is  advantageous  to  clear  them  out  of  the 
way  before  entering  upon  our  line  of  argument. 
Where  the  refutation  depends  upon  our  argument,  or 
would  occupy  much  time,  it  must  be  postponed  to  the 
close;  and  in  that  case,  if  some  of  the  objections 
would  be  likely  to  occur  at  once  to  the  hearer's  mind, 
and  interfere,  as  we  proceed,  with  the  effect  of  our 
arguments,  it  is  well  to  intimate  at  the  outset  that 
we  propose,  before  concluding,  to  notice  some  ob- 
jections. 

"  The  hint  may  here  be  of  some  utility,  that  when 
a  controverted  position  is  to  be  defended,  an  advan- 
tage may  be  gained  by  stating,  previously  to  entering 
on  the  proof,  one  or  two  of  the  most  weighty  objec- 
tions against  the  opposite  views.  Objectors  may  thus 
become  sensible  of  difficulties  which  they  had  not 
contemplated,  and  many  may  be  induced  to  hear  with 
greater  candor  arguments  in  favor  of  the  position; 
those  who  admit  the  point  under  discussion  may 
receive  additional  confirmation;  and  those  who  are 

1  Comp.  one  of  the  opening  paragraphs  of  this  chapter. 

2  Ripley,  Sac.  Rhet.,  p.  81. 


220        SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

indifferent  may  be  led  to  regard  the  subject  as  more 
important  than  they  had  supposed."  ^ 

In  a  formal  public  discussion,  it  is  a  very  common 
artifice  for  the  person  who  speaks  first  to  insist  that 
his  antagonist  shall  follow  the  order  of  topics  which 
he  has  laid  down.  In  the  famous  contest  as  to  the 
crown,  iEschines  attempted  this;  and  so  important 
did  Demosthenes  regard  the  matter,  that  he  begins 
his  speech  with  a  solemn  appeal  to  the  judges  that 
they  shall,  as  really  required  by  their  oath  of  impar- 
tiality, allow  each  of  the  disputants  to  pursue  the 
order  he  may  choose.^ 

§  7.      GENERAL   SUGGESTIONS   AS  TO   ARGUMENT. 

In  concluding  the  subject  of  Arguments,  it  is 
proper  to  throw  together  a  few  practical  hints, 
though  some  of  them  are  indirectly  involved  in  state- 
ments heretofore  made.^ 

(i)  Let  us  note  some  suggestions  as  to  cultivating 
the  logical  faculty  of  the  mind.  The  importance  of 
developing  the  reasoning  powers  is  clearly  enough 
involved  in  all  the  preceding  discussion,  yet  some 
suggestions  as  to  how  it  may  be  done  will  perhaps 
not  be  useless. 

(a)  Study  books  on  Logic.  There  are  many  of 
these,  and  no  complete  mention  is  here  needed  or 
attempted.  The  great  English  works  are  those  of  Sir 
William  Hamilton  for  Deductive  Logic,  and  of  John 
Stuart  Mill  for  Inductive  Logic.  These  are  still  of 
great  value,  and  should  be  read  by  all  who  wish  to 
make  a  thorough  study  of  the  subject ;  but  they  are 
profound  and  abstruse  works,  for  which  the  average 
preacher  will  scarcely  have  taste  or  time.     For  the 

1  Ripley,  p.  82. 

2  As  to  the  general  conduct  of  refutation,  see  above,  §  5. 
2  Comp.  particularly  §  i  of  this  chapter. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.       221 

most  of  us  the  two  brief  companion  volumes  of  Pro- 
fessor Noah  K.  Davis  will  be  sufficient,  and  will  cer- 
tainly serve  as  an  admirable  introduction  to  the  study 
of  Logic ;  these  are  the  works  respectively  on  De- 
ductive and  Inductive  Logic.^ 

{b)  Study  other  books  logically.  There  are  many 
books  of  distinctively  argumentative  character  which 
it  is  incumbent  on  the  preacher  to  read  with  care. 
He  should  make  it  his  business  to  follow  the  argu* 
ments  carefully,  criticising,  comparing,  approving,  or 
refuting,  as  the  case  may  require.  Besides  this 
hard  reading,  even  general  literature  should  for  the 
most  part  be  read  observantly,  analytically,  and 
thoughtfully. 

(c)  Practise  argument  frequently.  Severe  think- 
ing on  the  preacher's  own  part  is  a  necessity ;  let  him 
think  subjects  through,  working  out  processes  of 
reasoning  in  his  mind.  Debate  in  conversation  is 
very  useful,  and  may  be  well  managed.  By  all 
means  let  the  disputant  be  cool  and  courteous.  The 
good  George  Herbert  truly  says  : 

"Be  calm  in  arguing;  for  fierceness  makes 
Error  a  fault,  and  truth  discourtesy." 

(2)  Let  us  also  note  a  few  suggestions  as  to  the 
conduct  of  argument. 

{a)  Do  not  undertake  to  prove  anything  unless 
you  are  sure  it  is  true,  and  you  are  satisfied  that  you 
can  prove  it. 

{]))  Let  your  argument  start  from  something 
which  the  persons  addressed  will  fully  acknowledge. 
This  is  obviously  important,  but  is  often  neglected. 

(^)  Use  arguments  intelligible  to  your  hearers, 
and  likely  to  make  an  impression  on  their  minds. 
This  must  be  the  rule,  though  individual  hearers  may 

1  See  the  Bibliography  at  the  end  of  the  book  for  more  complete 
mention  of  works  on  Logic. 


222        SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

have  so  low  a  grade  of  intelligence  that  we  cannot 
uniformly  keep  within  their  reach,  and  though  par- 
ticular arguments  not  intelligible  even  to  the  majority- 
may  sometimes  be  used,  if  with  the  few  they  would 
be  very  effective,  and  if  they  take  up  but  little  time. 
But  it  is  a  not  uncommon  thing  to  see  preachers 
present  whole  trains  of  abstract  or  otherwise  un- 
familiar argument,  which  the  great  mass  of  their 
hearers  cannot  at  all  comprehend,  and  but  very  few 
can  follow  throughout.  The  preacher,  of  all  men, 
should  study  the  common  mind,  and  seek  fully  to 
understand  not  only  its  forms  of  expression,  but, 
.what  is  still  more  important,  its  ways  of  thinking. 
He  should  strive  to  put  himself  in  the  position  of  his 
hearers,  and  consider  how  this  or  that  argument  will 
appear  from  their  point  of  view.-^  "For  this  is  the 
reason  why  uneducated  men  have  more  power  of  per- 
suasion among  the  rabble  than  the  educated  have, 
just  as  the  poets  say  [Euripides  has  such  a  saying] 
that  the  uneducated  are  in  the  estimation  of  the  rabble 
finer  speakers.  For  the  one  class  say  what  is  matter  of 
common  knowledge  and  of  a  general  character;  but 
the  others  speak  from  their  own  knowledge,  and  say 
the  things  that  lie  close  to  their  hearers."  ^  How  true 
it  is  now  of  many  able  and  learned  preachers  that 
they  can  speak  only  of  generahties,  belonging  to  the 
common  stock  of  human  knowledge,  and  know  not 
how  to  fall  in  with  the  modes  of  thought  which  are 
familiar  and  agreeable  to  the  masses.  That  this  last 
can  be  done  without  the  sacrifice  of  truly  profound 
thought  or  the  violation  of  refined  taste,  has  been 
shown  by  some  ministers  of  every  age  and  country, 
and  most   conspicuously  by  that  Great   Teacher  of 

1  In  these  respects  much  may  be  learned  from  the  critical  obser- 
vation of  able  "stump-speakers  "  and  jury-lawyers. 

2  Aristotle,  Rhet.  II.,  xxii.  3. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT.       223 

whom  it  was  said  —  O  exalted  eulogium  !  —  ''the 
common  people  heard  him  gladly." 

id)  In  general,  depend  principally  on  Scripture 
arguments,  and  prefer  those  which  are  plain  and  un- 
questionable. When  we  engage  in  religious  contro- 
versy before  a  popular  audience,  we  shall  usually  do 
well  to  say  but  little  concerning  that  great  mass  of 
learned  matter  about  which  the  people  cannot  per- 
sonally judge,  and  rely  mainly  on  common-sense 
views  of  the  plain  teachings  of  Scripture.  But  if  we 
are  superior  to  the  petty  vanity  of  displaying  a  cheap 
erudition,  we  often  find  it  too  hard  to  work  out  a 
common-sense  view,  and  too  easy  to  appropriate  the 
piles  of  material  which  the  learned  have  left  us.  It  is 
to  be  feared  that  but  a  small  proportion  of  controver- 
sial sermons  are  in  this  respect  well  suited  to  the  pop- 
ular mind.  And  apart  from  controversy,  let  us  use 
chiefly  arguments  from  Scripture.  This  is  common 
ground  between  us  and  our  hearers.  In  general,  no 
other  arguments  can  come  so  appropriately  from  us, 
or  be  so  effective  with  the  people.  And  in  the  gen- 
eral principles,  the  many  special  precepts,  and  the 
immense  number  of  living  examples,  good  and  evil, 
to  be  found  in  the  Bible,  we  have  a  boundless  store 
of  material  for  argument.^ 

{e)  Do  not  try  to  say  everything,  but  select  a  suit- 
able number  of  the  most  available  arguments.  It  is 
true  that  sometimes  the  judicious  combination  of 
many  comparatively  slight  arguments  may  have  a 
great  effect.  **  Singly  they  are  light,"  says  Quintilian, 
'*  but  taken  together  they  do  hurt,  though  not  as  by  a 
thunderbolt,  yet  as  by  hail."  ^  Still,  it  is  a  very  com- 
mon fault  to  multiply  arguments  to  excess.  With  sore 
travail  of  the  mind  the  preacher  has  brought  all  these 

1  Comp.  Gresley  on  Preaching,  Letter  VIII. 

2  Inst.  Orat.  V.  12,  5. 


224       SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ARGUMENT. 

into  existence,  and  surveying  them  with  parental 
affection,  he  thinks  each  of  them  too  good  to  be  aban- 
doned. But  how  many  thousand  men  did  Gideon 
dismiss  that  he  might  conquer  with  three  hundred? 
Where  there  are  so  many  arguments,  either  the  dis- 
course must  be  excessively  long,  or  they  must  be  too 
hurriedly  presented.  "  A  plain  hearer,  who  listens  to 
a  rapid  succession  of  various  proofs,  especially  if  they 
are  novel  and  incongruous,  is  much  in  the  condition  of 
a  rustic  stranger,  who  is  hurried  through  the  streets  of 
a  crowded  city,  where  a  thousand  objects  strike  his 
eye,  not  one  of  which  leaves  any  distinct  and  perma- 
nent impression  on  his  mind."  ^  Where  it  is  really 
necessary  to  present  many  arguments,  let  them  be 
skilfully  grouped,  and  let  the  more  obvious  be  briefly 
stated,  in  order  to  pause  and  dwell  upon  those  which 
demand  special  attention. 

(/)  Avoid  formality.  Have  the  reality  of  argu- 
ment, but  as  little  as  possible  of  its  merely  technical 
forms  and  phrases. 

(^)  As  to  the  style  of  argument,  the  chief  requisites 
are  of  course  clearness,  precision,  and  force.  But  a 
simple  elegance  is  usually  compatible  with  these. 
And  where  the  subject  is  exalted  and  inspiring,  and 
the  speaker's  whole  soul  is  on  fire,  some  great  thun- 
derbolt of  argument  may  blaze  with  an  overpowering 
splendor.^ 

1  Porter's  Horn.  Lect.  XIII.  2  Comp.  Quintilian,  V.  14,  33. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION.    225 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  —  ILLUSTRATION. 


1.  Various  Uses  of  Illustra- 

tion. 

2.  Sources  of  Illustration. 


§  3.  Cautions    as    to  Illustra- 
tion. 


§  I.    VARIOUS   USES   OF  ILLUSTRATION. 

TO  illustrate,  according  to  the  etymology,  is  to 
throw  light  (or  lustre)  upon  a  subject;  and 
hence  illustration  would  strictly  include  only  expla- 
nation and  ornament.  But  that  which  explains  may 
also  contain  a  proof  by  analogy ;  or  that  which  adorns 
a  subject  may  at  the  same  time  connect  with  it  pa- 
thetic associations.  Accordingly,  what  we  call  illus- 
trations are  used  to  explain,  to  prove,  to  adorn,  to 
awaken  the  attention,  arouse  the  feelings,  and  help 
the  memory.^ 

Strictly  speaking,  one  would  not  call  Illustration  a 
distinct  class  of  the  materials  of  discourse.  As  a 
means  of  explaining,  proving,  or  awakening  emotion, 
it  would  fall  under  the  heads  of  Explanation,  Argu- 
ment, and  Application ;  ^  as  a  means  of  adornment, 
it  would  belong  to  Elegance  of  Style.^  But  as  the 
same  illustration  often  subserves  different  ends,  and 
as  the  proper  handling  of  illustrations  is  a  matter  of 

1  Comp.  Spurgeon's  Art  of  Illustration,  Lect.  III. ;  Beecher's  First 
Series  of  Yale  Lectures,  Lect.  VII.;  and  Phillips  Brooks'  Yale 
Lectures,  p.  175  f. 

*  Discussed  in  chapters  vi.,  vii.,  and  ix. ;  comp.  at  the  beginning 
of  chap.  vi. 

8  Part  III.  chap.  iv. 

IS 


226     SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION. 

great  practical  importance,  it  seems  best  to  give  the 
subject  a  separate  discussion. 

(i)  Peshaps  the  principal  use  of  illustrations  is  to 
explain.  This  they  do  either  by  presenting  an  ex- 
ample of  the  matter  in  hand,  a  case  in  point  (Exem- 
plification),^ or  by  presenting  something  similar  or 
analogous  to  it,  which  will  make  the  matter  plain. 

(2)  But  illustrations  are  also  very  frequently  em- 
ployed to  prove.  This  is  done  in  some  rare  cases  by 
presenting  an  example  which  warrants  an  Induction ;  ^ 
commonly,  it  is  an  argument  from  Analogy.^  In 
Romans,  chapters  vi.  and  vii.,  the  apostle  introduces 
three  illustrations,  as  showing  the  absurdity  of  sup- 
posing that  justification  by  faith  will  encourage  to  sin : 
believers  are  dead  to  sin,  and  risen  to  another  life; 
they  have  ceased  to  be  the  slaves  of  sin,  and  become 
the  slaves  (so  to  speak)  of  holiness,  of  God  ;  they  have 
ceased  to  be  married  to  the  law,  and  are  married  to  a 
new  husband,  Christ,  to  whom  they  must  now  bear 
fruit.  Each  of  these  is  not  merely  explanatory  of 
the  believer's  position,  but  involves  an  argument  from 
analogy.  So  with  the  olive-tree  in  chapter  xi.  We 
have  heretofore  seen  that  arguments  from  analogy 
are  most  frequently  and  most  safely  employed  in 
refutation ;  and  that,  when  used  to  establish  positive 
truth,  they  demand  very  great  care,  lest  we  infer 
more  than  they  actually  prove. 

The  fact  that  an  illustration  may  furnish  proof  at 
the  same  time  that  it  serves  for  explanation,  ornament, 
etc.,  calls  for  special  attention.  Some  analogy  may  be 
so  ornamental,  so  amusing,  or  pathetic,  as  to  make  us 
overlook  the  fact  that  it  has  of  right  an  argumentative 
force  also ;  and  some  comparison  may  be  so  beau- 
tiful an  ornament  as  to  be  allowed  force  in  the  way  of 

1  Comp.  chap.  vi.  §  2.  ^  Comp.  chap.  vii.  §  2,  (3). 

*  Comp.  chap.  vii.  §  3,  (4). 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION.     22^ 

proof  when  in  reality  it  is  a  mere  simile  founded  on 
resemblance,  and  presents  no  true  analogy,  and  thus 
no  argument.^  We  should  look  closely  at  illustra- 
tions employed  for  other  purposes,  and  see  whether 
they  also  contain  an  argument. 

(3)  Illustrations  are  valuable  as  an  ornament. 
Their  use  for  this  purpose,  as  to  kind  and  amount, 
must  be  governed  by  the  general  principles  which 
pertain  to  Elegance  of  Style.^  Those  who  find  them- 
selves much  inclined  to  the  use  of  ornamental  illus- 
tration should  exercise  a  rigorous  self-control,  and 
so  cultivate  their  taste  that  it  will  discard  all  but  the 
genuinely  beautiful.  Those  whose  style  is  barren  of 
such  ornament  should  seek  after  it,  not  by  tying  on 
worn  and  faded  artificial  flowers,  but  by  encouraging 
the  subject  to  blossom,  if  that  be  at  all  its  nature. 

(4)  Illustrations  are  an  excellent  means  for 
arousing  the  attention.  Often  they  will  happily 
serve  this  purpose  in  the  introduction  to  the  sermon, 
securing  at  the  outset  the  interest  of  the  audience. 
But  perhaps  they  are  in  this  respect  even  more  ser- 
viceable in  the  progress  of  the  d.'scourse,  particularly 
if  the  attention  has  been  somewhat  strained  by  argu- 
ment or  description,  and  begins  to  flag.  They  thus, 
as  Beecher  says,^  afford  variety  and  rest  to  the  mind ; 
and  this  is  very  important. 

(5)  They  also  frequently  serve  to  render  a  sub- 
ject impressive,  by  exciting  some  kindred  or  prepara- 
tory emotion.  Thus,  in  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal 
Son,  the  natural  pathos  of  the  story  itself  touches 
the  heart,  and  prepares  it  to  be  all  the  more  im- 
pressed by  the  thought  of  God's  readiness  to  wel- 
come  the    returning   sinner.      Most    preachers   use 

^  Comp.  Whately,  pp.  164-166. 

^  See  Part  III.  chap.  iv. ;  and  comp.  Brooks,  p.  175. 

*  Yale  Lect.,  First  Series,  pp.  156,  160. 


228     SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION. 

illustrations  very  freely  for  this  purpose.  The  story 
or  description  may  have  some  value  for  explanation, 
proof,  or  ornament,  but  their  chief  object  in  employ- 
ing it  is  to  arouse  the  feelings.  This  is  lawful  and 
useful,  provided  the  occasion  be  seized  to  plant  in 
the  softened  soil  the  seeds  of  divine  truth.  But  we 
sometimes  hear  stories  told,  and  at  great  length, 
which  purport  to  be  illustrations  of  sacred  truth,  and 
yet  have  no  other  effect,  and  to  all  appearance  no 
other  design,  than  to  awaken  a  transient  and  aimless 
emotion.^ 

(6)  Finally,  they  greatly  assist  the  memory  of 
the  hearer  in  retaining  the  lesson  of  the  sermon.^ 
Good  anecdotes  and  illustrations  are  far  more  easily 
remembered  than  bright  sayings,  and  trains  of  ar- 
gument. It  is  a  not  uncommon  experience  with 
preachers  to  find  that  their  finest  sentences  and  pro- 
foundest  observations  easily  slip  the  memory,  while 
some  apparently  trivial  anecdote  or  illustration 
remains.  If  these  can  be  made  so  apt  as  neces- 
sarily to  recall  the  argument  or  train  of  thought,  so 
much  the  better. 

The  importance  of  illustration  in  preaching  is  be- 
yond expression.  In  numerous  cases  it  is  our  best 
means  of  explaining  religious  truth,  and  often  to  the 
popular  mind  our  only  means  of  proving  it.  Orna- 
ment, too,  has  its  legitimate  place  in  preaching,  and 
whatever  will  help  us  to  move  the  hard  hearts  of 
men  is  unspeakably  valuable.  Besides,  for  whatever 
purpose  illustration  may  be  specially  employed,  it 
often  causes  the  truth  to  be  remembered.  Sometimes, 
indeed,  even  where  its  force  as  an  explanation  or 
proof  was  not  at  first  fully  apprehended,  the  illustra- 

1  Comp.  on  Application,  in  the  next  chapter. 

2  See  Spurgeon,  Art  of  Illustration,  p.  46;  and  Beecher,  First 
Series,  p.  159. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION.     229 

tion,  particularly  if  it  be  a  narrative,  is  retained  in 
the  mind  until  subsequent  instruction  or  experience 
brings  out  the  meaning.  Such  was  frequently  the 
case  with  the  first  hearers  of  our  Lord's  Parables. 
In  preaching  to  children,  and  to  the  great  mass 
of  adults,  illustration  is  simply  indispensable,  if  we 
would  either  interest,  instruct,  or  impress  them; 
while  good  illustration  is  always  acceptable  and 
useful  to  hearers  of  the  highest  talent  and  culture. 
The  example  of  our  Lord  decides  the  whole  ques- 
tion; and  the  illustrations  which  so  abound  in  the 
records  of  his  preaching  ought  to  be  heedfully  studied 
by  every  preacher,  as  to  their  source,  their  aim,  their 
style,  and  their  relation  to  the  other  elements  of  his 
teaching.  Among  the  Christian  preachers  of  dif- 
ferent ages  who  have  been  most  remarkable  for 
affluence  and  felicity  of  illustration,  there  may  be 
mentioned  Chrysostom,  Jeremy  Taylor,  Christmas 
Evans,  Chalmers,  Guthrie,  Spurgeon,  Richard  Fuller, 
and  Beecher.^ 

§  2.      SOURCES   OF  ILLUSTRATION.^ 

Illustration  of  religious  truth  may  be  drawn  from 
the  whole  realm  of  existence  and  of  conception.     It 

1  Of  works  discussing  the  subject  of  Illustration,  see  DowUng's 
Power  of  Illustration,  New  York,  Sheldon  &  Co.  In  Trumbull's 
Children  in  the  Temple,  1869,  there  are  good  remarks  on  the  sub- 
ject (pp.  263-270),  with  the  mention  of  Groser's  Illustrative  Teaching, 
London  S.  S.  Union,  and  Freeman's  Use  of  Illustration  in  S.  S. 
Teaching,  New  York,  Carlton  &  Porter.  Good  thoughts  may  be 
found  in  Papers  on  Preaching,  by  a  Wykehamist,  London,  1861, 
chapters  vi.  and  vii.  Gresley  (Letter  X.)  and  Hood  (Lecture  VIII.) 
present  some  things  that  are  valuable.  Beecher  has  some  excellent 
hints  in  the  seventh  lecture  of  his  first  series  of  Yale  Lectures ;  and 
Spurgeon,  in  his  third  series  of  Lectures  to  my  Students,  on  the  Art 
of  Illustration,  discusses  the  whole  subject  in  his  own  racy,  common 
sense  fashion. 

2  Comp.  Beecher,  p.  169;  and  Spurgeon,  Lect.  IV.  p.  54  flf. 


230    SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION. 

might  seem  idle  to  make  any  classification  of  the 
sources,  but  there  are  two  reasons  for  doing  so.  The 
preacher  may  thereby  be  stimulated  to  seek  such 
materials  in  directions  which  he  has  comparatively 
neglected,  and  the  attempt  at  classification  will 
furnish  the  occasion  for  some  useful  suggestions  in 
passing. 

(i)  Observation,  It  is  pre-eminently  important 
that  the  teacher  of  religion  should  be  a  close 
observer;  partly  that  he  may  know  how  to  adapt 
religious  instruction  to  the  real  character  of  his 
hearers,  and  the  actual  conditions  of  their  life,  but 
also  that  he  may  be  able  to  draw  from  that  inex- 
haustible store  of  illustration  which  lies  everywhere 
open  to  the  man  who  has  eyes  to  see  and  ears  to 
hear. 

Nature  teems  with  analogies  to  moral  truth;  and 
we  should  not  merely  accept  those  which  force  them- 
selves on  our  attention,  but  should  be  constantly 
searching  for  them.  Besides  those  analogies  which 
are  embodied  in  our  familiar  metaphors,  and  those 
which  belong  to  the  common  stock  of  illustration, 
there  are  others,  almost  without  number,  which  every 
thoughtful  observer  may  perceive  for  himself;  and 
here,  as  elsewhere,  what  is  even  relatively  original 
has  thereby  an  augmented  power.  The  writings  of 
John  Foster  are  particularly  rich  in  such  analogies, 
and  his  Memoir  shows  that  he  habitually  sought  for 
them,  and  systematically  recorded  all  that  he  found. 
Several  of  our  Lord's  most  impressive  illustrations 
are  drawn  from  his  own  close  observation  of  nature ; 
as,  for  example,  the  lily,  the  mustard-seed,  the  birds. 
And  notice  that  although  these  are  all  so  stated  as  to 
be  very  beautiful,  he  employs  them  for  higher  ends, 
for  explanation  or  for  argument.  There  is  here  an 
important  lesson,  for  preachers  who  derive  illustra- 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION.     23 1 

tion  from  nature  are  too  apt  to  follow  the  poets  in 
making  it  chiefly  ornamental.^ 

A  still  richer  field,  if  possible,  is  human  life, 
with  all  its  social  relations  and  varied  callings  and 
pursuits,  its  business  usages,  mechanical  processes, 
etc.,  and  with  all  its  changing  experiences.  Here  a 
man's  personal  experience  will  blend  with  his  obser- 
vation of  others.  And  he  who  really  and  thoughtfully 
observes  life,  spreading  in  its  immense  variety  all 
around,  and  embracing,  too,  the  world  within  us,  can 
surely  never  be  at  a  loss  for  illustration.  Chrysostom, 
though  somewhat  ascetical  in  his  views,  and  though  a 
diligent  student,  overflows  with  allusions  to  real  life, 
of  which  he  had  observed  much  while  serving  as 
deacon  and  presbyter  in  the  great  city  of  Antioch, 
before  going  to  Constantinople.  Beecher,  who  lived 
for  years  in  the  midst  of  a  continent  and  a  nation 
condensed  within  a  few  square  miles,  shows  that  he 
diligently  carried  out  the  lesson  which  he  declares 
himself  to  have  learned  from  Ruskin,  to  "  keep 
his  eyes  and  ears  open."  He  watched  the  ships 
and  the  sailors,  acquainted  himself  with  the  customs, 
good  and  bad,  of  commercial  life,  curiously  inspected 
a  great  variety  of  mechanical  processes,  often  visited 
his  farm  and  closely  observed  agricultural  operations 
and  the  various  phases  of  rural  life,  was  constantly 
seeing  and  hearing  what  occurred  in  his  home  and 
in  other  homes  that  he  visited,  supplemented  his  own 
observation  by  inquiring  of  others  as  to  all  the  mani- 
fold good  and  evil  of  the  great  world  that  surged 
around  him,  and  everywhere  and  always  was  asking 
himself,  till  that  became  the  fixed  habit  of  his  mind. 
What  is  this  like?  What  will  this  illustrate?  Hence 
the  boundless  variety,  and  the  sparkling  freshness, 
of  his  illustrations,  and  these  formed  a  notable  ele- 
*  Comp.  on  Imagination,  Part  III.  chap.  v. 


232     SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION. 

ment  of  his  power  as  a  preacher.  Spurgeon,  though 
perhaps  not  equal  to  Beecher  in  this  respect,  was  also 
a  close  observer  in  many  and  various  directions ;  and 
he  drew  far  more  than  Beecher  from  reading. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  much  of  the  choicest 
illustration  is  derived  from  the  commonest  pursuits 
and  the  most  familiar  experiences  of  life,  and  a  man 
may  excel  in  this  respect  without  living  in  New 
York  or  London.  The  great  mass  of  our  Lord's 
illustrations  are  drawn  from  ordinary  human  life. 
Of  agricultural  operations,  we  find  reference  to  sow- 
ing wheat  and  various  circumstances  which  help  or 
hinder  its  growth,  to  harvesting,  winnowing,  and 
putting  in  barns,  to  the  management  of  fig-trees  and 
vineyards,  and  to  bottling  the  wine.  In  domestic 
affairs,  he  speaks  of  building  houses,  various  duties 
of  servants  and  stewards,  leavening  bread,  baking, 
and  borrowing  loaves  late  at  night,  of  dogs  under  the 
table,  patching  clothes  and  their  exposure  to  moth, 
lighting  lamps,  and  sweeping  the  house.  xA.s  to 
trade,  etc.,  he  mentions  the  purchase  of  costly  pearls, 
finding  hid  treasure,  money  intrusted  to  servants  as 
capital,  lending  on  interest,  creditors  and  debtors, 
imprisonment  for  debt,  and  tax-gatherers.  Among 
social  relations,  he  tells  of  feasts,  weddings,  and 
bridal  processions,  the  judge  and  the  widow  who 
had  been  wronged,  the  rich  man  and  the  beggar,  the 
good  Samaritan.  Of  political  affairs,  he  alludes  to 
kings  going  to  war;  and  the  Parable  of  the  Ten 
Pounds  (Luke  xix.  ii,  ff.)  corresponds  in  every  par- 
ticular to  the  history  of  Archelaus  as  enacted  during 
our  Lord's  childhood.  The  Prodigal  Son  is  a  series 
of  the  most  beautiful  pictures  of  real  life.  And  who 
can  think  without  emotion  of  Jesus  standing  in  some 
market-place,  and  watching  children  at  their  sports, 
from  which  he  afterwards  drew  a  striking  illustra' 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION.     233 

tion  ?  All  these  form  but  a  part  of  the  illustrative 
material  which,  in  our  brief  records  of  his  teaching, 
we  find  him  deriving  from  the  observation  of  human 
life,  and  in  nearly  every  case  from  matters  familiar 
to  all.  The  lesson  is  obvious,  but  it  should  be  pon- 
dered long;  and  we  should  not  fail  to  remark  the 
sweet  dignity  with  which  these  common  things  are 
clothed;  not  one  of  our  Lord's  illustrations  is 
ludicrous. 

The  observation  of  children  is  particularly  profit- 
able to  a  religious  teacher.  They  reveal  much  of 
human  nature,  and  their  words  and  ways  are  usually 
interesting  to  adults.  But  let  us  never  repeat  a 
child's  striking  sayings  in  its  own  presence,  nor  in 
any  wise  flatter  children,  as  preachers  sometimes  do. 
The  recollections  of  one's  own  childhood  grow  in- 
creasingly interesting  as  life  advances ;  but  we  must 
be  careful  not  to  exaggerate  and  glorify  those  recol- 
lections in  employing  them,  not  to  fall  into  egotism, 
nor  to  imagine  that  these  perhaps  trifling  matters 
will  be  sure  to  interest  others  as  much  as  ourselves. 

Narrations  of  actual  experience  of  the  religious 
life,  whether  our  own  or  that  of  others  known  to  us, 
are  apt  to  be  generally  interesting,  and  will  often, 
as  cases  in  point,  furnish  admirable  illustration. 
The  great  revival  preachers  usually  have  a  multi- 
tude of  such  narratives,  drawn  from  their  observa- 
tion at  other  places,  and  they  often  use  them  with 
great  effect.  This  is  one  secret  of  the  power  pos- 
sessed by  some  comparatively  ignorant  preachers  in 
secluded  districts.  They  tell  their  own  experience 
freely,  and  do  not  shrink  from  mentioning  persons 
even  in  an  adjoining  neighborhood,  whose  cases  they 
can  make  instructive.^ 

(2)  Pure  Invention.  It  is  perfectly  lawful  to  in- 
1  Comp.  on  Experimental  Subjects,  chap.  ill.  §  4. 


234     SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION. 

vent  an  illustration,  even  in  the  form  of  a  story,  pro- 
vided that  it  possesses  verisimilitude,  and  provided 
that  we  either  show  it  to  be  imaginary,  or  let  noth- 
ing depend  upon  the  idea  that  it  is  real.  It  seems 
almost  certain  that  some  of  our  Lord's  Parables  are 
in  this  sense  fictitious.  It  is  shown,  in  one  case,  by 
the  very  form  of  the  expression,  "  The  sower  went 
forth  to  sow."  When  we  use  imagined  illustration 
as  affording  an  argumerit,  great  care  must  be  taken 
to  make  it  fair.  It  is  very  common  for  controversial 
speakers  or  writers  to  "suppose  a  case,"  and  sup- 
pose it  of  such  a  kind  as  just  to  suit  their  purpose, 
without  due  regard  to  fairness.  "  If  lions  were  the 
sculptors,  the  lion  would  be  uppermost."  Imagined 
illustrations  for  explanation  or  ornament  are  fre- 
quently too  formal  or  elaborate.  "As  when  some 
giant  oak,"  etc.,  etc.  "Suppose  there  were  a  man, 
.  .  .  and  suppose,  .  .  .  and  suppose,"  etc.  We  all 
know  how  such  things  are  done. 

(3)  Science.  Besides  what  is  derived  from  our 
own  observation  of  nature  and  of  human  life,  there 
is  an  immense  fund  of  illustration  in  Science,  which, 
collecting  the  results  of  a  far  wider  observation, 
classifies  and  seeks  to  explain  them.  With  the  vast 
growth  of  Physical  Science  in  our  day,  and  the 
extensive  diffusion  of  some  knowledge  of  its  leading 
departments,  it  becomes  increasingly  appropriate 
that  preachers  should  draw  illustration  from  that 
source.  In  this  way,  too,  they  will  most  effectually 
counteract  the  efforts  of  some  infidel  men  of  science, 
and  some  unwise  teachers  of  religion,  to  bring  Chris- 
tianity and  Science  into  an  appearance  of  hostility. 
It  is  much  better,  both  for  this  purpose  and  for  others, 
that  a  preacher  should  strive  to  be  well  acquainted 
with  one  or  a  few  departments  of  Physical  Science, 
than  that  he  should  dip  lightly  into  many. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  —  ILLUSTRATION.    235 

Two  especial  difficulties  beset  the  use  of  scien- 
tific illustration.  It  has  been  so  common  to  mak^ 
Astronomy,  Geology,  etc.  the  occasion  for  marvel 
lous  flights  of  would-be  eloquence,  that  many  per- 
sons shrink  from  all  allusion  to  such  subjects,  as 
savoring  of  mere  declamation.  But  one  highly  objec- 
tionable extreme  should  not  drive  us  to  the  other. 
It  is  surely  possible  to  use  such  illustrations  in  a 
direct  and  quiet  fashion;  and  if  now  and  then  they 
really  kindle  the  imagination  and  excite  emotion,  in 
such  cases  it  will  be  natural,  and  the  effect  will  be 
good.  But  beware  of  borrowing  from  Chalmers' 
Astronomical  Sermons;  it  is  wearing  Saul's  armor. 
The  other  difficulty  is,  that  much  of  the  finest  scien- 
tific illustration  demands  more  knowledge  of  science 
than  the  great  mass  of  hearers  really  possess.  Now 
an  illustration  which  would  be  particularly  accept- 
able and  profitable  to  a  few,  may  sometimes  be 
employed,  provided  we  introduce  it  with  some  quiet 
remark,  not  saying  that  most  persons  are  unacquainted 
with  this  subject,  but  that  such  persons  as  happen  to 
have  paid  attention  to  such  or  such  a  matter  will 
remember,  etc.  Then  no  one  will  complain  of  our 
alluding  to  a  topic  of  which  he  is  ignorant.  Or  it 
may  be  proper  to  give  the  information  necessary  in 
order  to  appreciate  the  illustration,  provided  we  can 
do  so  in  few  words,  and  without  anything  that  looks 
like  display.  It  is  certainly  lawful  to  spend  as  much 
time  upon  describing  a  phenomenon  or  explaining  a 
principle  of  nature  which  will  afford  good  illustra- 
tion, as  we  should  spend  upon  telling  an  anecdote 
for  the  same  purpose,  if  only  the  description  or 
explanation  be  made  intelligible  and  interesting  to 
all.  Some  sermons  are  but  scientific  lectures,  with 
a  religious  application. 

Besides   Astronomy   and    Geology,    Physics    and 


2^6    SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION. 

Chemistry,  other  branches  of  science  are  coming  to 
be  freely  used.  Antony  of  Padua,  the  most  popular 
preacher  of  the  Middle  Ages,  drew  many  illustra- 
tions from  the  habits  of  animals,  real  or  reported. 
Whately  was  very  fond  of  illustrations  from  Zoology, 
and  James  Hamilton  from  Botany.  The  various 
departments  of  Medical  Science  have  always  been 
thus  employed.  There  is  an  obvious  and  always 
interesting  analogy  between  bodily  disease  or  heal- 
ing and  that  of  the  soul ;  and  Bacon  has  noticed  that 
the  figurative  language  of  Scripture  is  drawn  with 
especial  frequency  from  Agriculture  and  Medicine. 
Psychology,  in  its  several  departments,  is  often  itself 
the  theme  of  pulpit  discussion,  ^  but  is  also  rich  in 
illustration  of  distinctively  religious  themes.  Social 
Science  will  add  much  to  what  is  furnished  by  our 
own  observation  of  life;  and  the  science  of  Law  is 
of  great  value,  not  only  from  its  connection  with  the 
revealed  Law,  but  as  illustrating  the  doctrines  of 
atonement  and  justification. 

(4)  History.  Preachers  have  always  made  much 
use  of  illustration  from  History.  The  field  is  in 
itself  boundless,  but  is  in  practice  greatly  limited 
by  the  popular  lack  of  extensive  acquaintance  with 
it.  As  in  the  case  of  Science,  we  may  sometimes 
skilfully  introduce  what  is  familiar  to  but  a  few, 
and  may  often  give,  briefly,  without  ostentation, 
and  in  an  interesting  manner,  the  requisite  informa- 
tion. Great  as  is  the  value  for  our  purposes  of 
Science,  and  the  attention  now  bestowed  upon  it, 
we  must  not  forget  that  History,  from  its  narrative 
and  descriptive  character  and  its  human  interest, 
has  a  peculiar  and  almost  unrivalled  charm.  And 
in  some  respects  this  is  especially  true  of  Biography, 
both  general  and  religious.     Here  there  is  the  inter- 

1  Comp.  chap.  v.  §  2. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION.     237 

est  which  always  attaches  to  a  person,  to  an  indi- 
vidual human  life.  And  biographical  facts  can  often 
be  more  readily  stated  than  those  of  general  history. 
Early  English  preachers  drew  nearly  all  their  his- 
torical and  biographical  illustration  from  ancient 
history.  Jeremy  Taylor,  for  example,  greatly  abounds 
with  this.  In  our  day  more  modern  sources  are  of 
course  chiefly  in  request,  and  ancient  writers  are 
again  comparatively  a  fresh  field,  particularly  if  one 
will  take  them  at  first  hand,  and  not  simply  borrow 
from  other  preachers,  or  from  recent  works  on 
ancient  history.  Thus  Herodotus  and  Plutarch, 
even  in  a  translation,  may  be  used  with  great  advan- 
tage ;  and  so  as  to  Josephus,  whose  works  are  now 
by  most  preachers  unwisely  neglected.  Spurgeon 
often  used  illustrations  from  the  lives  of  devout 
men;  and  Richard  Fuller  employed  all  manner  of 
historical  and  biographical  incident,  both  secular 
and  religious,  with  rare  felicity  and  power. 

All  preachers  derive  illustration  from  the  7tews  of 
the  day.  Some  carry  this  too  far,  warranting  the 
reproach  that  they  *'  get  the  text  from  the  Bible,  and 
the  sermon  from  the  newspapers. "  But  it  is  a  grave 
mistake  if  any  are  thereby  repelled  into  avoiding  a 
source  of  illustration  so  fresh  in  its  interest,  and  so 
much  more  generally  familiar  to  the  audience  than 
either  science  or  history.  By  judiciously  alluding 
to  all  suitable  matters  of  recent  occurrence,  whether 
recorded  in  the  newspapers,  or  happening  in  our  own 
community,  we  may  render  the  sermon  more  inter- 
esting, and  may  at  the  same  time  have  opportunity 
to  throw  in  useful  practical  remarks  about  many 
questions  of  right  and  wrong.  ^     The  danger  is,  that 

1  Comp.  as  to  preaching  on  Politics,  chap.  iii.  §  2.  See  also  Brooks' 
Lectures,  p.  176.  He  says  the  illustration  drawn  from  current  events 
'^  brings  in  its  own  associations  and  prejudices.    It  is  too  alive." 


238     SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION. 

we  shall  set  the  people's  minds  a-going  upon  the 
matters  which  occupy  them  every  day,  to  the  neglect 
of  our  sacred  theme.  This  may  be  avoided  if,  on 
the  one  hand,  we  take  care  not  to  intermingle  an 
excessive  amount  of  such  allusion,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  keep  it  strictly  subordinate,  in  our  own  feel- 
ings  and  in  the  method  of  introduction,  to  the  reli- 
gious aim  of  the  discourse.  If  not  thus  subordinate, 
then  the  most  interesting  allusion  will  be  the  worst 
illustration. 

Anecdotes,  literally  things  unpublished,  originally 
denoted  interesting  matters,  chiefly  historical  and 
biographical  incidents,  gathered  from  unpublished 
manuscripts  of  ancient  authors,  and  thrown  into  a 
miscellaneous  collection.  Though  now  more  widely 
used,  the  term  is  still  most  properly  applied  to 
stories  of  what  one  has  himself  observed,  or  has 
drawn  from  oral  sources.  Understood,  however,  in 
the  wider  sense,  so  as  to  include  published  narra- 
tives of  detached  incidents,  anecdotes  are  a  valuable 
means  of  illustration,  which  some  preachers  employ 
excessively  or  in  bad  taste,  but  which  others  ought 
to  employ  much  more  largely  than  they  do.  He  who 
feels  that  his  style  would  be  degraded  by  introduc- 
ing an  anecdote,  may  profitably  inquire  whether  his 
style  be  not  too  stilted,  or,  at  any  rate,  too  monot- 
onous in  its  sustained  elevation,  for  popular  dis- 
course. Let  anecdotes  be  certainly  true,  if  we 
present  them  as  true,  and  let  them  be  told  without 
exaggeration  or  "embellishment."  Let  them  not  be 
ludicrous,  —  though  a  slight  tinge  of  delicate  humor 
is  sometimes  lawful, — not  trivial,  and  especially 
not  tedious.  And  as  illustration  is  in  general  a 
subordinate  thing  in  preaching,  and  that  which  is 
subordinate  should  rarely  be  allowed  to  become 
prominent,  a  preacher  should  avoid  such  a  multipli- 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION.     239 

cation  of  anecdotes  in  the  same  sermon,  or  in  succes- 
sive sermons,  as  would  attract  very  special  attention. 
A  greater  freedom,  both  as  to  amount  and  kind,  is 
admissible  in  platform-speaking,  than  in  those  more 
grave  discourses  which  are  usually  called  sermons.^ 

(5)  Literature  and  Art.  Even  when  science  and 
history  have  been  excluded,  literature,  ancient  and 
modern,  in  prose  and  in  verse,  covers  an  immense 
field,  and  offers  a  vast  store  of  illustrative  material. 
Suggestive,  pleasing,  or  impressive  sentiments,  and 
striking  expressions  may  be  quoted,  and  allusion 
made  to  well-known  literary  works  and  characters, 
whenever  it  will  really  help  to  render  the  discourse 
interesting  and  useful.  Quotations  of  poetry,  though 
made  by  some  men  in  offensive  excess,  are  employed 
by  very  many  with  admirable  effect;  and  while  a 
few  need  to  check  their  exuberance  in  this  respect, 
the  great  mass  of  ministers  should  stimulate  them- 
selves to  observe  and  retain  more  largely,  and  to 
use  more  freely,  any  appropriate  poetical  quotations. 
No  one  can  have  failed  to  notice  how  often  quotations 
from  hymns,  particularly  when  they  are  familiar, 
add  greatly  to  the  interest  and  impressiveness  of  a 
sermon.  Spurgeon  often  uses  these  very  effectively. 
The  Pilgrim's  Progress,  with  its  strong  sense  and 
homely  simplicity,  its  poetic  charm  and  devotional 
sweetness,  is  so  rich  in  the  choicest  illustration  that 
every  preacher  ought  to  make  himself  thoroughly 
familiar  with  it,  and  to  refresh  his  knowledge  again 
and  again  through  life.  Fables  are  so  often  alluded 
to  in  common  conversation  that  we  scarcely  notice 
it,  and  the  occasions  are  very  numerous  in  which 
they  might  be  usefully  employed  in  preaching.  An 
author  of  distinction,  and  of  wide  attainments  and 

^  Arvine's  Cyclopaedia  of  Anecdotes  is  of  but  little  value.  Bible 
Illustrations,  New  York,  Sheldon  &  Co.,  i2mo,  is  better. 


240    SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION. 

experience  of  life,  remarked  some  years  ago,  that, 
in  his  judgment,  next  to  the  Bible  and  Shakespeare, 
the  most  instructive  book  in  the  world  was  ^sop's 
Fables.  Even  nursery  rhymes,  though  not  often 
exactly  appropriate  in  regular  sermons,  have  been 
employed  to  good  purpose  in  speaking  to  children. 

Proverbs  are  a  singularly  valuable  means  of  stat- 
ing truth  forcibly  and  impressively.  True,  they 
usually  represent  an  imperfect  generalization,  and 
are  one-sided,  so  that  almost  any  proverb  can  be 
matched  by  an  opposite  one.  Yet  in  exhibiting  par- 
ticular aspects  of  truth,  in  impressing  particular 
points,  they  have  great  power,  especially  with  the 
popular  mind.  "Any  one  who,  by  after  investiga- 
tion, has  sought  to  discover  how  much  our  rustic 
hearers  carry  away,  even  from  the  sermons  to  which 
they  have  attentively  listened,  will  find  that  it  is 
hardly  ever  the  course  and  tenor  of  the  argument, 
supposing  the  discourse  to  have  contained  such ;  but 
if  anything  has  been  uttered,  as  it  used  so  often  to 
be  by  the  best  Puritan  preachers,  tersely,  pointedly, 
epigrammatically,  this  will  have  stayed  by  them, 
while  all  the  rest  has  passed  away."  "Great 
preachers  for  the  people,  such  as  have  found  their 
way  to  the  universal  heart  of  their  fellows,  have 
been  ever  great  employers  of  proverbs.''^  Our 
Lord  once  expressly  employs  a  proverb,  and  re- 
peatedly uses  expressions  which  appear  to  have  been 
proverbial.  This  was  one  of  the  various  ways  in 
which  he  sought  to  strike  the  common  mind,  and 
impress  the  popular  heart.  The  preacher  should 
study   the   Proverbs   of   Solomon,   and   often   quote 

1  Trench  on  the  Lessons  in  Proverbs,  quoted  in  Papers  on  Preach- 
ing, by  a  Wykehamist,  p.  96.  Compare,  in  this  latter  work,  pp.  94-105. 
There  is  a  good  deal  about  both  Fables  and  Parables  in  Spurgeon's 
Art  of  Illustration ;  and  quite  a  collection  of  Proverbs  in  his  "  Salt- 
cellars." 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION.     241 

them.  The  proverbs  of  our  own  country  and  lan- 
guage have,  of  course,  peculiar  force  with  us;  but 
those  of  other  countries  will  have  freshness,  and  if 
readily  intelligible  as  well  as  striking,  they  may  be 
very  effective.  All  nations  have  numerous  proverbs; 
and  besides  the  peoples  more  nearly  related  to  our- 
selves, they  especially  abound  among  the  Hindoos, 
the  Chinese,  and  some  African  tribes.  It  would 
sometimes  be  profitable  to  read  slowly  over  lists  of 
proverbs,  considering  what  religious  truth  this  and 
this  will  illustrate,  and  collecting  such,  or  making 
reference  to  them  on  the  margin,  and  associating 
them  in  our  mind  with  the  particular  truths  to  which 
they  relate.^  Proverbs  are  often  humorous;  and 
while  the  coarse  or  ridiculous  should  be  avoided,  we 
may  remember  that "  a  thousand  beauties  are  snatched 
from  the  very  verge  of  propriety,  —  while  many 
humdrum  commonplace  men  deserve  the  rebuke  of 
Quintilian:  'His  excellence  was  that  he  had  no 
fault,  and  his  fault  that  he  had  no  excellence. '  A 
sermon  had  better  have  too  much  salt  in  it  than  too 
little."  2  Besides  proverbs  proper,  there  are  many 
sage  maxims  which  are  often  repeated  in  conver- 
sation, ^  and  many  striking  sayings  which  may  be 
quoted  from  the  Fathers,  the  Old  English  divines, 
and  others. 

Illustration  is  also  frequently  drawn  from  works 
of  Art,  especially  from  pictures.  These  are  con- 
stantly used  in  books  under  the  name  of  "  illustra- 
tions "  of  the  narrative  or  treatise,  and  never  fail, 
when  good,  to  interest  every  class  of  readers;  and 
in  like  manner  the  description  of  pictures  and  statues 

1  Bohn's  Handbook  of  Proverbs  and  Polyglot  of  Foreign  Proverbs 
are  excellent  collections,  and  not  costly. 

2  Papers  on  Preaching,  p.  99. 

3  Comp.  Aristotle's  Rhet.  II.  21. 

16 


242     SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION. 

may  be  very  effectively  used  in  a  sermon.  Such  a 
description  should  of  course  be  brief,  and  free  from 
any  appearance  of  display. 

(6)  Scripture.  The  Scriptures  present  materials 
of  illustration  suited  to  every  legitimate  subject  of 
preaching,  and  belonging  to  almost  every  one  of 
the  above-mentioned  classes,  especially  history  and 
biography,  poetry  and  proverbs,  and  all  manner  of 
pointed  sayings.  Several  causes  combine  to  make 
this  the  best  of  all  the  sources  of  illustration.  The 
material  is  to  some  extent  familiar  to  all,  and  thus 
the  illustration  will  be  readily  intelligible.  Again, 
this  material  will  be  much  more  impressive  than  any 
other,  because  of  its  sacredness,  and  its  known  and 
felt  relation  to  ourselves.  Besides,  the  frequent  use 
of  Scripture  illustration  serves  to  revive  and  extend 
the  knowledge  of  Scripture  among  the  hearers. 

Every  preacher  should  most  diligently  draw  from 
this  source.  And  to  this  end,  besides  keeping  on 
hand  some  book  or  other  particular  portion  of  the 
Bible  for  thorough  study,  preachers  should  continue 
through  life  the  rapid  but  attentive  reading  of  the 
whole  Bible,  that  its  facts  and  sayings  may  be  kept 
fresh  in  their  minds,  and  readily  present  themselves 
for  use. 

§  3.    CAUTIONS  AS  TO  THE  EMPLOYMENT  OF 
ILLUSTRATION. 

(i)  Do  not  use  every  illustration  that  occurs  to 
you,  nor  seek  after  them  for  their  own  sake.  The 
question  is,  whether  this  or  that  will  really  conduce 
to  the  objects  of  the  discourse,  will  really  explain 
or  prove  what  is  under  discussion,  or  make  it  more 
interesting  and  impressive.  Some  men  get  a  gen- 
eral notion  that  illustration  is  a  good  thing,  and  that 
it  is  their  duty  to  employ  it,  and  they  laboriously 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION.       243 

bring  forward  so-called  illustrations  which  really 
effect  nothing,  and  are  therefore  but  useless  lumber. 
Others,  who  have  a  fertile  fancy  or  a  well-stocked 
memory,  while  wanting  in  genuine  culture  and  good 
taste,  will  excessively  multiply  or  expand  their 
illustrations.  They  forget  that  command  of  illus- 
tration, like  command  of  words,  involves  not  only 
copious  production,  but  judicious  selection  and  real 
adaptation. 

(2)  Seek  for  great  variety  of  illustration,  both  in 
your  preaching  in  general,  and  in  each  sermon.  Do 
not,  for  example,  have  too  many  anecdotes  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  other  kinds.  Walch  yourself  as  to 
this,  and  pay  attention  to  the  hints  of  good  critics. 
The  preachers  who  have  greatly  excelled  in  the  use 
of  illustration,  as  Guthrie,  Spurgeon,  Beecher,  have 
not  failed  to  observe  this  point. 

(3)  As  a  general  rule,  it  is  not  well  to  talk  about 
illustrating,  but  just  to  illustrate.  If  you  can  throw 
the  light  vividly  on  your  subject,  it  will  seldom  be 
necessary  to  give  notice  beforehand  that  you  are 
about  to  do  so. 

(4)  Carefully  avoid  turning  attention  away  from 
the  subject  illustrated  to  the  illustration  itself. 
This  is  obviously  a  very  grave  fault,  but  it  is  often 
committed.  Illustrations  stated  at  great  length, 
with  high-wrought  imagery  and  polished  phrase, 
such  as  Guthrie  frequently  employs,  will  almost 
inevitably  have  this  effect;  though  sometimes,  as 
in  the  case  of  Chalmers,  they  may  be  so  felicitous, 
and  applied  with  such  passionate  earnestness,  that 
we  at  last  forget  everything  in  the  subject  illus- 
trated. So  many  hearers  are  caring  mainly  for  en- 
tertainment, that  it  is  a  sad  thing  if  we  divert  their 
minds  from  some  subject  they  ought  to  consider,  to 
the  curious  or  admiring  examination  of  the  mere 


244    SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — ILLUSTRATION. 

apparatus  by  which  we  throw  light  on  it.^  It  is  said 
of  a  Spanish  artist,  that  in  painting  the  Last  Supper 
he  put  on  the  table  some  chased  silver  cups  so  beau- 
tiful that  they  were  the  first  thing  in  the  picture  to 
attract  admiring  notice.  Observing  this,  he  took 
his  brush  and  effaced  them,  that  nothing  might  hin- 
der the  beholder  from  looking  at  Jesus. 

From  this  whole  discussion  it  will  be  evident  that 
a  preacher  should  be  constantly  accumulating  the 
materials  of  illustration.  Whether  he  had  better 
jot  down  all  that  occur  to  him,  keep  a  scrap-book, 
or  rely  mainly  on  his  memory,  will  depend  on  his 
mental  constitution  and  habits;  but  neither  method 
should  be  employed  to  the  total  neglect  of  the 
other.  2 

1  This  fault  occurs  very  frequently  in  speaking  to  children.  There 
is  a  mere  succession  of  stories  or  pictures,  which  teach  nothing, 
impress  nothing,  and,  save  as  idle  entertainment,  are  nothing.  Comp. 
Children  in  the  Temple,  pp.  266,  267. 

2  Comp.  chap.  v.  §  2. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — APPLICATION.      245 


CHAPTER   IX. 
SPECIAL  MATERIALS  —  APPLICATION. 

THE  application  in  a  sermon,  is  not  merely  an 
appendage  to  the  discussion,  or  a  subordinate 
part  of  it,  but  is  the  main  thing  to  be  done.  Spur- 
geon  says,  "  Where  the  application  begins,  there  the 
sermon  begins."  We  are  not  to  speak  before  the 
people,  but  to  them,  and  must  earnestly  strive  to 
make  them  take  to  themselves  what  we  say.  Daniel 
Webster  once  said,  and  repeated  it  with  emphasis, 
"  When  a  man  preaches  to  me,  I  want  him  to  make 
it  a  personal  matter,  a  personal  matter,  a  personal 
matter ! "  And  it  is  our  solemn  duty  thus  to  address 
all  men,  whether  they  wish  it  or  not. 

The  sermons  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  with  all  their 
power,  show  the  evil  of  having  always  a  regular 
"application,"  formally  announced  or  indicated. 
Often  a  brief  and  informal  application  is  best. 
Often,  too,  it  is  better  not  to  reserve  the  application 
for  the  latter  part  of  the  discourse,  but  to  apply  each 
thought  as  it  is  presented,  provided  they  all  conspire 
towards  a  common  result. 

The  term  application  is,  in  general,  somewhat 
loosely  employed  in  regard  to  preaching,  for  it 
includes  two  or  three  distinct  things.  Besides  the 
application  proper,  in  which  we  show  the  hearer 
how  the  truths  of  the  sermon  apply  to  him,  and 
besides  the  frequent  practical  suggestions  as  to  the 
best  mode  and  means  of  performing  the  duty  urged, 


246      SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — APPLICATION. 

there  is  also  commonly  included  all  that  we  denote 
by  the  terms  "persuasion"  and  "exhortation."  But 
if  the  ideas  conveyed  are  kept  distinct,  it  is  probably 
better  to  retain  the  term,  with  which  all  preachers 
and  hearers  are  so  familiar. 

(i)  Application,  in  the  strict  sense,  is  that  part,  or 
those  parts,  of  the  discourse  in  which  we  show  how 
the  subject  applies  to  the  persons  addressed,  what 
practical  instructions  it  offers  them,  what  practical 
demands  it  makes  upon  them.  Sometimes  this  is 
effected  by  means  of  what  are  called  remarks^  that 
is,  certain  noticeable  matters  belonging  to  or  con- 
nected with  the  subject,  to  which  attention  is  now 
especially  directed.  These  should  always  be  of  a 
very  practical  character,  bearing  down  upon  the  feel- 
ings and  the  will.  And  the  remarks  must  not  diverge 
in  various  directions,  and  become  like  the  untwisted 
cracker  of  a  whip,  but  should  have  a  common  aim  and 
make  a  combined  impression.  In  sermons  upon  his- 
torical subjects,  it  is  lawful  to  bring  out  several  dis- 
tinct lessons,  but  these  had  better  be  pretty  closely 
related.  It  is  obvious  that  while  some  subjects  may 
be  applied  to  the  congregation  as  a  whole,  others 
will  be  applicable  only  to  particular  classes,  or  will 
have  to  be  applied  to  distinct  classes  separately,  as 
converted  and  unconverted,  old  and  young.  But  it  is 
not  necessary,  as  some  preachers  seem  to  imagine, 
always  to  make  some  kind  of  application  to  the 
unconverted,  or  some  remark  to  them  in  conclusion. 
A  sermon  addressed  throughout  to  pious  people  will 
often  specially  instruct  and  impress  the  unconverted. 
What  men  apply  to  themselves,  without  feeling  that 
it  was  aimed  at  them,  is  apt  to  produce  the  greatest 
effect.  It  is  never  judicious  to  make  an  application 
to  any  particular  individual,  and  very  rarely  to  a 
small   and  well-defined   class.     What   is   popularly 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — APPLICATION.      247 

called  "hitting  at"  some  person  or  some  few  per- 
sons will  almost  always  do  more  harm  than  good. 

Application  also  frequently  takes  the  form  of 
inferences.  In  England,  two  centuries  ago,  from 
the  passion  for  logical  analysis  in  preaching,  it  was 
common  to  make  a  great  number  of  inferences  in 
concluding,  "sometimes  twelve,  sometimes  twenty, 
and  sometimes  fifty.  These  were  called  ^/j-^j;  (i)  of 
information^  (2)  of  instruction^  (3)  of  examination, 
(4)  of  reproofs  (5)  of  encouragement,  (6)  of  comfort , 
(7)  of  exhortationy  and  so  on."  ^  This  was  of  course 
ruinous  to  all  properly  oratorical  effect.  But  even 
at  the  present  day,  the  same  tendency  to  think  more 
of  instruction  in  preaching  than  of  practical  effect, 
which  leads  many  still  to  employ  much  division  and 
subdivision,  likewise  leads,  in  some  quarters,  to  a 
great  fondness  for  closing  with  "inferences."  This 
form  of  making  application  of  the  subject  ought  to 
be  in  two  directions  carefully  limited.  Nothing 
should  be  presented  as  an  inference  which  does  not 
logically  and  directly  follow  from  the  subject  dis- 
cussed. The  other  limit  is,  that  no  inferences  should 
be  drawn  in  applying  a  subject  which  are  not  of 
practical  importance.  It  is  not  a  preacher's  busi- 
ness to  exhibit  all  the  matters  which  maybe  inferred 
from  his  discussion,  as  if  he  were  attempting  an 
exercise  in  logic,  but  only  to  draw  out  those  which 
will  appeal  to  the  feelings  and  the  will  of  his  hearers, 
and  move  them  to  action.  Of  course  in  other  parts 
of  the  sermon  than  the  application  these  merely  logi- 
cal inferences  may  be  allowable  and  instructive. 

Again,  application  is  often  best  presented  in  the 
form  of  lessons.  This  term  implies  that  the  practi- 
cal teachings  of  the  subject  are  more  thoroughly 
brought  out  and  more  fully  applied  than  would  be 

1  Robinson's  edition  of  Claude,  II,  457. 


248      SPECIAL  MATERIALS— APPLICATION. 

done  in  mere  "remarks,"  while  it  does  not  restrict 
the  application  to  those  teachings  which  appear  as 
logical  "  inferences "  from  the  propositions  estab- 
lished. This  way  of  applying  the  truths  of  the 
discourse  would  seem,  therefore,  to  have  some  ad- 
vantages over  the  other  methods.  These  "  lessons  " 
must,  of  course,  be  thoroughly  practical,  and  must 
not  be  too  formal,  nor  have  a  magisterial  air.  The 
preacher  is  not  a  dignitary,  speaking  ex  cathedra  to 
his  inferiors.  He  had  better  speak,  in  general,  of 
lessons  which  we  may  learn. 

Of  course  there  are  applications  which  it  would 
not  be  proper  to  designate  by  any  one  of  these  terms, 
remarks,  inferences,  or  lessons.  Nor  is  it  necessary, 
or  even  advisable  always,  to  use  these  somewhat 
formal  phrases,  even  where  they  are  appropriate. 
The  preacher  must,  in  the  mode  of  presenting 
applications,  study  naturalness,  simplicity,  and 
variety. 

(2)  Another  way  of  making  application  consists  of 
suggestions  as  to  the  best  means  and  methods  of 
performing  the  duty  or  duties  enjoined  in  the  sermon. 
To  give  good  practical  suggestions  is  a  task  often 
calling  for  experience  and  the  fruits  of  thoughtful 
observation,  and  sometimes  demanding  delicate  tact, 
but  is  certainly,  when  well  managed,  a  most  impor- 
tant part  of  the  preacher's  work.  When  one  has 
argued  some  general  duty,  as  that  of  family  or  pri- 
vate prayer,  of  reading  the  Bible,  or  of  relieving  the 
needy  and  distressed,  it  is  exceedingly  useful  to  add 
hints  as  to  the  actual  doing  of  the  particular  duty, 
so  as  to  make  it  seem  a  practical  and  a  practicable 
thing,  so  as  to  awaken  hope  of  doing  better,  and  thus 
stimulate  effort.  Many  a  Christian  duty  seems  to 
most  people  impracticable  for  them;  and  the  most 
effective  application  in  such  cases  is  to  show  that  it 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — APPLICATION.      249 

is  practicable.  This  should  not  often  be  done  in 
the  way  of  reproof,  as  if  the  preacher  was  wishing 
simply  to  take  away  excuses  for  neglect,  but  with  a 
sympathizing  recognition  of  real  difficulties  which 
are  "common  to  man." 

(3)  But  the  chief  part  of  what  we  commonly  call 
application  is  persuasion.  It  is  not  enough  to  con- 
vince men  of  truth,  nor  enough  to  make  them  see 
how  it  applies  to  themselves,  and  how  it  might  be 
practicable  for  them  to  act  it  out,  —  but  we  must 
"persuade  men."  A  distinguished  minister  once 
said  that  he  could  never  exhort;  he  could  explain 
and  prove  what  was  truth  and  duty,  but  then  he  must 
leave  people  to  themselves.  The  apostle  Paul,  how- 
ever, could  not  only  argue,  but  could  say,  "  We  pray 
you,  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God." 
Do  we  not  well  know,  from  observation  and  from 
experience,  that  a  man  may  see  his  duty  and  still 
neglect  it .?  Have  we  not  often  been  led  by  persua- 
sion to  do  something,  good  or  bad,  from  which  we 
were  shrinking.?  It  is  proper,  then,  to  persuade,  to 
exhort,  even  to  entreat. 

Persuasion  is  not  generally  best  accomplished  by 
a  m.ere  appeal  to  the  feelings,  but  by  urging,  in  the 
first  place,  some  motive  or  motives  for  acting,  or 
determining  to  act,  as  we  propose.  This  is  not 
properly  called  a  process  of  argument.  The  motive 
presented  may  require  previous  proof  that  it  is  some- 
thing true,  or  right,  or  good,  but  this  proving  is  dis- 
tinct from  the  act  of  presenting  it  as  a  motive ;  and 
if  when  bringing  a  motive  to  bear  we  have  to  prove 
anything  concerning  it,  the  proof  ought  to  have  great 
brevity  and  directness,  or  it  will  delay  and  hinder 
the  designed  effect. 

A  preacher  must  of  course  appeal  to  none  but 
worthy  motives.     The  principal  motives   he  is  at 


250      SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — APPLICATION. 

liberty  to  use  may  be  classed  under  three  heads; 
namely,  happiness,   holiness,   love. 

We  may  lawfully  appeal  to  the  desire  for  happi- 
ness. Those  philosophers  who  insist  that  man  ought 
always  to  do  right  simply  and  only  because  it  is 
right,  are  no  philosophers  at  all,  for  they  are  either 
grossly  ignorant  of  human  nature,  or  else  are  indul- 
ging in  mere  fanciful  speculation.  No  doubt  some 
preachers  err  in  that  they  treat  happiness  as  the 
almost  exclusive,  at  any  rate  as  the  chief  motive. 
Certainly  this  should  always  be  subordinated  to  duty 
and  affection ;  but  when  thus  subordinated,  it  is  a 
legitimate  and  a  powerful  motive.  The  Scriptures 
appeal  not  only  to  our  feelings  of  moral  obligation, 
but  to  our  hopes  and  fears,  for  time  and  for  eternity. 
"It  is  profitable  for  thee,"  is  a  consideration  which 
the  Great  Teacher  repeatedly  employs  in  encour- 
aging to  self-denial.  A  desire  for  the  pleasures  of 
piety  in  this  life,  or  even  for  the  happiness  of  heaven, 
would  never,  of  itself  alone,  lead  men  to  become 
Christians,  or  strengthen  them  to  live  as  such ;  but, 
combined  with  other  motives,  it  does  a  great  and 
useful  work.  And  there  is  here  included  not  only 
the  pleasure  to  be  derived  from  gratification  of  our 
common  wants,  but  of  taste  and  of  ambition. 

There  is  in  men  a  spark  of  desire,  and  often  a 
deep  longing  for  holiness ^  at  least  in  one  sense  of  the 
term,  though  they  often  wish  it  could  be  enjoyed 
along  with  sinful  gratifications.  The  most  aban- 
doned man  sometimes  wishes  to  be  good,  nay,  per- 
suades himself  that  in  certain  respects  he  is  good ; 
and  the  great  mass  of  mankind  fully  intend,  after 
indulging  a  little  longer  in  sinful  pleasure,  to  be- 
come thoroughly  good  before  they  die.  Here,  then, 
is  a  great  motive  to  which  the  preacher  may  appeal. 
The  thorough  depravity  of  human  nature  should  not 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS —  APPLICATION.      251 

make  us  forget  that  goodness  can  always  touch  at 
least  a  faintly  responsive  chord  in  the  human  breast. 
We  ought  to  hold  up  before  men  the  beauty  of  holi- 
ness, to  educate  the  regenerate  into  doing  right  for 
its  own  sake,  and  not  merely  for  the  sake  of  its 
rewards.  We  ought  to  stimulate,  and  at  the  same 
time  control,  that  hatred  of  evil,  which  is  the  natural 
and  necessary  counterpart  to  the  love  of  holiness. 
And  as  regards  the  future  life,  we  should  habitually 
point  men,  not  only  to  its  happiness,  but  still  more 
earnestly  to  its  purity,  and  strive  by  God's  blessing 
to  make  them  long  after  its  freedom  from  all  sin  and 
from  all  fear  of  sinning.  Such  noble  and  ennobling 
aspirations  it  is  the  preacher's  high  duty  and  priv- 
ilege to  cherish  in  his  hearers,  by  the  very  fact  of 
appealing  to  them. 

And  the  mightiest  of  all  motives  is  love.  In  the 
relations  of  the  present  life,  love  is  the  great  antag- 
onist of  selfishness.  They  who  "have  none  to  love," 
by  any  natural  ties,  must  always  interest  their  hearts 
in  the  needy  and  the  afflicted,  or  they  will  grow 
more  and  more  narrow  and  selfish.  Accordingly, 
we  may  constantly  appeal  to  men's  love  of  their  fel- 
low-men, as  a  motive  for  doing  right.  Parents  may 
be  urged  to  seek  personal  piety,  and  higher  degrees 
of  it,  for  the  sake  of  their  growing  children;  and 
so  with  the  husband  or  wife,  the  brother  or  sister 
or  friend.  Now  to  this  motive  the  gospel  appeals 
in  a  very  peculiar  manner.  We  ought  to  love  God 
supremely,  and  such  supreme  love  would  be  our 
chief  motive  to  do  right  and  to  do  good.  But  sin 
has  alienated  us  from  God,  so  that  we  do  not  love 
him.  And  Christ  presents  himself,  the  God-man, 
the  Redeemer,  to  win  our  love  to  him  and  thus  to 
God.  "Whosoever  shall  lose  \)\s>X\iQ,  formy  sake^'' 
are  words  which  reveal  the  new  and  mighty  gospel 


252      SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — APPLICATION. 

motive,  love  to  Christ.  To  this,  above  all  other 
motives,  the  preacher  should  appeal.  Far  from  ex- 
cluding others,  it  intensifies  while  it  subordinates 
them.i 

But  our  task  is  not  merely  the  calm  exhibition  of 
motives,  that  men  may  coolly  act  according  to  them. 
Many  truths  of  religion  are  eminently  adapted  to 
stir  the  feelings,  and  to  speak  of  such  truths  without 
feeling  and  awakening  emotion,  is  unnatural  and 
wrong.  And  so  mighty  is  the  opposition  which  the 
gospel  encounters  in  human  nature,  so  averse  is  the 
natural  heart  to  the  obedience  of  faith,  so  powerful 
are  the  temptations  of  life,  that  we  must  arouse  men 
to  intense  earnestness,  and  often  to  impassioned 
emotion,  if  we  would  bring  them  to  surmount  all 
obstacles,  and  to  conquer  the  world,  the  flesh,  and 
the  devil.  Who  expects  to  make  soldiers  charge 
a  battery  or  storm  a  fortress  without  excitement? 
Many  persons  shrink  from  the  idea  of  exciting  the 
feelings.  "It  seems  to  be  commonly  taken  for 
granted,  that  whenever  the  feelings  are  excited,  they 
are  over-excited. "  ^  But  while  ignorant  people  often 
value  too  highly,  or  rather  too  exclusively,  the  appeal 
to  their  feelings,  cultivated  people  are  apt  to  shrink 
from  such  appeals  quite  too  much.  Our  feelings  as 
to  religion  are  habitually  too  cold,  — who  can  deny 
it.-*  And  any  genuine  excitement  is  greatly  to  be 
desired.  Inspired  teachers  have  evidently  acted  on 
this  principle.  The  prophets  made  the  most  impas- 
sioned appeals.  Our  Lord  and  the  apostles  mani- 
festly strove  not  merely  to  convince  their  hearers, 
but  to  incite  them  to  earnest  corresponding  action, 
and  their  language  is  often  surcharged  with  emotion. 

1  On  the  subject  of  Motives,  see  much  profound  and  suggestive 
remark  in  Vinet,  pp.  203-222.     Comp.  Arist.  Rhet.  I.  10,  7  ff. 

2  Whately,  p.  215. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  —  APPLICATION.      253 

Yet  we  should  never  wish  to  excite  feeling  for  its 
own  sake,  but  as  a  means  of  persuasion  to  the  cor- 
responding course  of  action.  In  this  respect  many 
preachers  err;  some  from  not  clearly  perceiving  that 
emotion  is  of  little  worth  unless  it  excites  to  action, 
and  others,  it  is  to  be  feared,  from  an  excessive 
desire  for  popular  applause.  These  last  give  their 
hearers  the  luxury  of  idle  emotion,  as  a  pathetic 
novel  or  a  tragedy  might  do,  and  hearers  and  preacher 
go  away  well  pleased  with  themselves  and  each  other.  ^ 
Bishop  Butler,  in  a  celebrated  passage,  has  pointed 
out  "that  practical  habits  are  formed  and  strength- 
ened by  repeated  acts,  and  that  passive  impressions 
grow  weaker  by  being  repeated  upon  us.  .  .  .  Pas- 
sive impressions  made  upon  our  minds  by  admoni- 
tion, experience,  example,  though  they  may  have  a 
remote  efficacy,  and  a  very  great  one,  towards  form- 
ing active  habits,  yet  can  have  this  efficacy  no  other- 
wise than  by  inducing  us  to  such  a  course  of  action ; 
and  it  is  not  being  affected  so  and  so,  but  acting, 
which  forms  those  habits;  only  it  must  be  always 
remembered,  that  real  endeavors  to  enforce  good 
impressions  upon  ourselves  are  a  species  of  virtuous 
action. "  ^  No  wonder  some  preachers  find  that  their 
pathetic  descriptions  and  passionate  appeals  now 
make  but  little  impression  upon  persons  who  were 
once  powerfully  affected  by  them.  The  emotion  was 
treated  as  an  end,  not  as  a  means,  and  was  habit- 
ually allowed  to  subside  without  any  effect  upon  the 
hearer's  active  habits;  and  a  steady  diminution  of 
the  emotion  itself  was  the  inevitable  result.  Surely 
that  is  not  good  preaching,  —  whatever  the  unthink- 

1  The  remarks  of  Day  on  excitation  (Art  of  Disc.  p.  171),  insisting 
that  it  is  distinct  from  persuasion,  and  that  *'  a  considerable  part  of 
pulpit  oratory  "  aims  at  excitation  alone,  are  to  be  regretted,  as  tending 
to  encourage  a  common  error. 

3  Butler's  Analogy,  Part  I.  chap,  v.,  ii. 


254     SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — APPLICATION. 

ing  may  suppose,  —  which  excites  a  mere  transient 
and  unproductive  emotion. 

It  is  matter  of  universal  observation  that  a  speaker 
who  would  excite  deep  feeling  must  feel  deeply  him- 
self. Demosthenes  sometimes  spoke  with  such  pas- 
sionate earnestness  that  his  enemies  said  he  was 
deranged.  Cicero  remarks  that  it  is  only  passion 
that  makes  the  orator  a  king ;  that,  though  he  him- 
self had  tried  every  means  of  moving  men,  yet  his 
successes  were  due,  not  to  talent  or  skill,  but  to 
a  mighty  fire  in  his  soul  so  that  he  could  not  contain 
himself;  and  that  the  hearer  would  never  be  kindled, 
unless  the  speech  came  to  him  burning.  ^  It  is  said 
of  Ignatius  Loyola,  the  founder  of  the  Jesuits,  that 
he  preached  "  with  such  an  unction  and  emotion,  that 
even  those  amongst  his  audience  who  did  not  under- 
stand the  language  in  which  he  spoke,  were,  never- 
theless, moved  to  tears  by  the  very  tones  of  his  voice 
—  the  earnestness  and  burning  zeal  which  appeared 
in  his  every  gesture  and  look." ^ 

Alas !  it  is  often  our  chief  difficulty  in  preaching 
to  feel  ourselves  as  we  ought  to  feel.  And  a  gen- 
uine fervor  cannot  be  produced  to  order  by  a  direct 
effort  of  will.  We  must  cultivate  our  religious  sen- 
sibilities, must  keep  our  souls  habitually  in  contact 
with  gospel  truth,  and  maintain,  by  the  union  of 
abundant  prayer  and  self-denying  activity,  that  ardent 
love  to  God  and  that  tender  love  to  man  which  will 
give  us,  without  an  effort,  true  pathos  and  passion. 
The  famous  John  Henry  Newman,  in  his  "  University 
Preaching,"  speaks  as  follows:  "Talent,  logic,  learn- 
ing, words,  manner,  voice,  action,  all  are  required 
for  the  perfection  of  a  preacher;  but  *one  thing  is 
necessary,'  — an  intense  perception  and  appreciation 
of  the  end  for  which  he  preaches,  and  that  is,  to  be 

1  Cicero,  Orator,  §§  128-132.  2  Potter,  Sac.  El.  p.  211. 


SPECIAL  MATERIALS  — APPLICATION.      255 

the  minister  of  some  definite  spiritual  good  to  those 
who  hear  him.  ...  I  do  not  mean  that  a  preacher 
must  aim  at  earnestness^  but  that  he  must  aim  at  his 
object,  which  is  to  do  some  spiritual  good  to  his 
hearers,  and  which  will  at  once  make  him  earnest."  ^ 

When  the  preacher  does  feel  very  deeply,  his  mere 
exhortation  will  have  some  power  to  move,  especially 
where  he  has  personal  influence  as  a  devout  man,  or 
for  any  reason  has  the  sympathies  of  his  audience. 
There  is  then  the  inexplicable  contagion  of  sym- 
pathy. But  he  must  avoid  getting  clear  away  from 
the  hearers  in  his  passionate  feeling,  for  then  sym- 
pathy will  give  place  to  its  opposite. 

Apart  from  sympathy  with  our  own  emotion,  we 
can  excite  emotion  in  others  only  by  indirect  means, 
not  by  urging  them  to  feel,  though  we  should  urge 
with  the  greatest  vehemence.  We  must  hold  up 
before  the  mind  considerations  suited  to  awaken 
emotion,  and  let  them  do  their  work.^  For  this 
purpose  the  preacher  may  of  course  learn  from  the 
contemplation  of  the  leading  human  passions,  as  to 
their  nature,  and  the  best  means  of  exciting  them.  ^ 
And  we  need  not  only  to  know  human  nature  in  gen- 
eral, but  in  most  cases  also  need  to  understand  the 
peculiar  circumstances,  prejudices,  tastes,  of  those 
whom  we  address.  This  is  plainly  demanded  in  the 
case  of  a  missionary  to  the  heathen,  but  is  hardly 
less  necessary  at  home.  One  reason  why  unlearned 
preachers  often  have  such  power  with  the  masses  is, 
that  they  understand,  and  fully  sympathize  with,  the 
persons  whom  they  address,  while  learned  men  some- 
times do  not. 

In  order  to  excite  any  of  the  passions  by  speech, 

1  Quoted  by  Potter,  p.  213.  2  Comp.  Whately,  pp.  216-219. 

8  Aristotle's  discussion  of  certain  passions  (Rhet.  II.  chapters 
i.-xvii.)  is  not  exactly  what  we  might  hope  to  find,  but  contains  much 
that  is  curious  and  suggestive. 


256      SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — APPLICATION. 

we  have  to  operate  chiefly  through  the  imagination, 
"A  passion  is  most  strongly  excited  by  sensation. 
The  sight  of  danger,  immediate  or  near,  instantly 
rouseth  fear;  the  feeling  of  an  injury,  and  the  pres- 
ence of  the  injurer,  in  a  moment  kindle  anger.  Next 
to  the  influence  of  sense  is  that  of  memory,  the  effect 
of  which  upon  passion,  if  the  fact  be  recent,  and 
remembered  distinctly  and  circumstantially,  is  almost 
equal.  Next  to  the  influence  of  memory  is  that  of 
imagination."^  In  proportion  as  the  hearer's  imag- 
ination is  kindled,  he  seems  to  see  that  which  we 
present,  and  the  effect  upon  his  feelings  approximates 
to  the  effect  of  sight.  ^ 

In  presenting  an  object  so  that  it  may  awaken 
imagination  and  impress  the  feelings,  we  usually 
need  to  give  well-chosen  details.  Without  this,  as 
we  have  before  seen,  it  is  impossible  to  make  a 
narration  or  description  impressive.  ^  But  preachers 
sometimes  so  multiply  details  as  to  weary  the  hearer, 
offend  his  taste,  or  betray  a  lack  of  right  feeling  on 
their  own  part.  It  may  be  gravely  doubted  whether 
a  man  can  carry  through  a  minute  description  of  the 
crucifixion,  who  is  at  the  time  cherishing  an  intense 
faith  and  love  towards  Christ.  A  few  vivid  details, 
presented  very  briefly,  and  with  genuine  emotion, 
will  usually  make  a  far  deeper  impression.  And  so 
with  elaborate  descriptions  of  the  day  of  judgment, 
and  the  agonies  of  perdition.  One  who  truly  real- 
ized the  scene,  and  tenderly  loved  his  fellowmen, 
could  hardly  endure  to  dwell  so  long  on  the  most 
harrowing  details,  and  the  preacher  who  does  this 
is  apt  to  be  for  the  time  (though  unconscious  of  it) 
mainly  alive  to  the  artistic  interest  in  his  picture. 

1  Campbell,  Phil,  of  Rhet.  p.  103. 

2  See  below  on  Imagination,  Part  III.  chap.  v. 
•  See  above,  chap.  vi.  §  2. 


SPECIAL   MATERIALS  — APPLICATION.      257 

Comparison  is  often  very  effective  in  awakening 
emotion.  Thus  we  make  men  feel  more  deeply  how 
shameful  is  ingratitude  to  God,  by  first  presenting 
some  affecting  case  of  ingratitude  to  a  human  bene- 
factor. The  emotion  excited  by  something  as  regards 
which  men  feel  readily  and  deeply,  is  transferred 
to  the  object  compared.  For  example,  "  Like  as  a 
father  pitieth  his  children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them, 
that  fear  him. "  The  effect  of  climax^  gradually  work- 
ing the  feelings  up  to  the  highest  pitch,  may  also  be 
very  great,  as  every  one  has  observed. 

We  must  not  try  to  be  highly  impassioned  on  all 
subjects,  on  all  occasions,  or  in  all  parts  of  a  dis- 
course. Appeals  to  the  feelings  will  usually  be 
made  only  at  the  conclusion;  sometimes,  after  the 
discussion  of  each  successive  topic,  but  then  we 
must  be  sure  that  the  interest  first  excited  can  be 
renewed,  and  gradually  increased.  It  is  a  common 
fault  with  inexperienced  preachers  to  make  vehe- 
ment appeals  in  the  early  part,  even  in  the  very 
beginning,  of  a  sermon;  in  such  cases  there  will 
almost  inevitably  be  a  reaction,  and  a  decay  of 
interest  before  the  close.  If  several  impassioned 
passages  are  to  occur,  those  which  come  first  should 
be  comparatively  brief,  and  followed  by  something 
calm  or  familiar.  It  is  also  important  to  avoid 
exhausting  our  physical  force,  before  reaching  that 
portion  of  the  sermon  which  calls  for  the  most  pas- 
sionate earnestness.  He  who  is  exhausted  not  only 
cannot  speak  forcibly,  but  cannot  feel  deeply.  And 
a  concluding  exhortation  should  never  be  prolonged 
beyond  the  point  at  which  the  preacher  is  still  in  full 
vigor,  and  the  hearers  feel  a  sustained  interest.^ 

1  On  the  subject  of  Application  (though  he  awkwardly  includes  it 
all  under  a  discussion  of  the  Conclusion)  Professor  Phelps  has  a  very 
thorough  and  elaborate  treatment ;  Theory  of  Preaching,  p.  454  ff. 

17 


part  IL 

ARRANGEMENT  OF  A   SERMON. 


CHAPTER  I. 
IMPORTANCE  OF  ARRANGEMENT. 

THE  effective  arrangement  of  the  materials  in  a 
discourse  is  scarcely  less  important  than  their 
intrinsic  interest  and  force.  This  is  a  distinct  part  of 
the  speaker's  work,  and  should  be  contemplated  and 
handled  as  something  apart  from  invention  on  the 
one  hand  and  from. style  on  the  other,  albeit  closely 
connected  with  both.  In  fact,  the  task  calls  for  a 
specific  talent.  Some  men  exhibit  from  the  very 
outset  a  power  of  constructing  discourses  which  is 
quite  out  of  proportion  to  their  general  abilities ;  and 
other  men  find  nothing  so  difficult  to  acquire  or  exer- 
cise as  skill  in  arrangement.  And  here,  as  in  every- 
thing else  that  demands  specific  talent,  there  is  need 
of  special  training  and  practice.^ 

In  this  respect  the  speaker  is  an  architect.  Out  of 
gathered  materials  he  is  to  build  a  structure,  and  a 
structure  suited  to  its  specific  design.  The  same,  or 
nearly  the  same  materials  may  be  made  into  a  dwell- 
ing, a  jail,  a  factory,  a  church.  But  how  different  the 
plan  of  the  building  according  to  its  design,  and  how 
important  that  it  be  built  with  special  reference  to 

1  See  a  sensible  discussion  of  Arrangement  in  Genung's  Practical 
Rhetoric,  p.  260  £F. 


IMPORTANCE  OF  ARRANGEMENT.    259 

the  design.  In  like  manner,  substantially  the  same 
materials  may  be  wrought  into  a  story,  a  dialogue, 
an  essay,  or  a  speech;  and  several  speeches  on 
the  same  subject,  and  embodying  much  the  same 
thoughts,  may  make  a  very  different  impression 
according  to  the  plan  of  each. 

Or  the  speaker's  task  may  be  compared  to  the 
organization  of  an  army,  and  then  the  concentration 
of  its  several  divisions  upon  one  objective  point. 

"  We  know  not  how  to  name  a  composition  without 
order.  It  is  disposition,  it  is  order  which  constitutes 
discourse.  The  difference  between  a  common  orator 
and  an  eloquent  man  is  often  nothing  but  a  difference 
in  respect  to  disposition.  Disposition  may  be  elo- 
quent in  itself,  and  on  close  examination  we  shall  often 
see  that  invention  taken  by  itself,  and  viewed  as  far 
as  it  can  be  apart  from  disposition,  is  a  compara- 
tively feeble  intellectual  force.  *  Good  thoughts,* 
says  Pascal,  *  are  abundant.'  The  art  of  organizing 
them  is  not  so  common.  ...  I  will  not  go  so  far  as 
to  say  that  a  discourse  without  order  can  produce  no 
effect,  for  I  cannot  say  that  an  undisciplined  force 
is  an  absolute  nullity.  We  have  known  discourses 
very  defective  in  this  respect  to  produce  very  great 
effects.  But  we  may  affirm  in  general,  that  other 
things  being  equal,  the  power  of  discourse  is  pro- 
portional to  the  order  which  reigns  in  it,  and  that 
a  discourse  without  order  (order,  be  it  remembered, 
is  of  more  than  one  kind)  is  comparatively  feeble. 
A  discourse  has  all  the  power  of  which  it  is  suscep- 
tible, only  when  the  parts  proceeding  from  the  same 
design  are  intimately  united,  exactly  adjusted,  when 
they  mutually  aid  and  sustain  one  another  like  the 
stones  of  an  arch.  .  .  .  This  is  so  true,  so  felt,  that 
complete  disorder  is  almost  impossible,  even  to  the 
most  negligent  mind.     In  proportion  to  the  impor- 


260         IMPORTANCE   OF   ARRANGEMENT. 

tance  of  the  object  we  wish  to  attain,  or  the  diffi- 
culty of  attaining  it,  is  our  sense  of  the  necessity  of 
order."  i 

(i)  Arrangement  is  of  great  importance  to  the 
speaker  himself.  It  reacts  upon  invention.  One  has 
not  really  studied  a  subject  when  he  has  simply 
thought  it  over  in  a  desultory  fashion,  however  long- 
continued  and  vigorous  the  thinking  may  have  been. 
The  attempt  to  arrange  his  thoughts  upon  it  suggests 
other  thoughts,  and  can  alone  give  him  just  views  of 
the  subject  as  a  whole.  Good  arrangement  assists  in 
working  out  the  details,  whether  this  be  done  men- 
tally or  in  writing.  Each  particular  thought  when 
looked  at  in  its  proper  place,  develops  according 
to  the  situation,  grows  to  its  surroundings.  If  one 
speaks  without  manuscript,  an  orderly  arrangement 
of  the  discourse  greatly  helps  him  in  remembering 
it.  One  reason  why  some  preachers  find  extempo- 
raneous speaking  so  difficult  is,  that  they  do  not  ar- 
range their  sermons  well.  And  not  only  to  invention 
and  memory,  but  to  emotion  also,  is  arrangement 
important.  Whether  in  preparation  or  in  deliv- 
ery of  sermons,  a  man's  feelings  will  flow  naturally 
and  freely,  only  when  he  has  the  stimulus,  support, 
and  satisfaction  which  come  from  conscious  order. 

The  speaker  who  neglects  arrangement  will  rapidly 
lose.  Instead  of  Improving,  his  power  of  constructing, 
organizing,  a  discourse ;  ^  and  he  will  have  to  rely, 
for  the  effect  of  his  sermons,  entirely  on  the  impres- 
sion made  by  striking  particular  thoughts,  or  on  the 
possibility  that  high  emotional  excitement  may  pro- 
duce something  of  order.  For  passion  does  some- 
times strike  out  an  order  of  its  own.     "  I  know  that 

1  Vinet,  pp.  264,  265. 

2  Comp.  Shedd,  p.  214;  and  Etter,  The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon, 
p.  302  f. 


IMPORTANCE  OF  ARRANGEMENT.   261 

nothing  is  as  logical,  after  its  own  manner,  as  pas- 
sion; and  that  we  may  depend  upon  it  for  the 
direction  of  a  discourse  of  which  it  is  the  principal 
inspiration.  The  beginning  we  may  be  sure  will 
be  good,  and  the  beginning  will  produce  all  the 
rest.  It  will  be  repetitious,  it  will  retrace  its  steps, 
it  will  digress,  but  it  will  do  everything  with  the 
grace  and  felicity  which  always  accompany  it;  and 
it  would  be  less  true  and  consequently  less  eloquent 
if  it  were  more  logical  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
word.  It  naturally  finds  the  order  which  suits  it,  and 
it  finds  this  precisely  because  it  does  not  seek  after 
it.  The  rapid  propagation  of  ideas,  their  concatena- 
tion by  means  of  thoroughly  vital  transitions,  which 
themselves  constitute  the  movement  of  the  discourse, 
suffice  for  the  eloquence  of  passion."  ^  This  sort  of 
thing  is  not  unfrequently  observed  in  the  best  efforts 
of  some  uncultivated  but  gifted  men;  and  many  a 
pastor  has  had  occasional  experience  of  it  when 
forced  to  preach  with  inadequate  preparation,  and 
unusually  helped  by  passionate  emotion.  It  is  very 
proper  that  a  preacher  should  sometimes  give  him- 
self up,  for  a  small  portion  of  a  discourse,  to  the  sug- 
gestions of  deep  feeling,  should  throw  himself  upon 
the  current  of  emotion;  and  in  social  meetings  he 
may  sometimes  speak  without  any  immediate  prepar- 
ation, and  yet  if  he  becomes  deeply  stirred,  and  gains 
the  sympathies  of  his  audience,  may  speak  with 
spontaneous  order,  and  with  powerful  effect.  But 
to  rely  on  this  habitually  is  surpassingly  unwise. 

(2)  Still  more  important  is  good  arrangement  as 
regards  the  effect  upon  the  audience.  It  is  neces- 
sary, first,  in  order  to  make  the  discourse  intelli- 
gible, "  Hearers  generally,  when  the  preacher  has 
a  poor  plan,  feel  the   difficulty,  though  they  may 

1  Vinet,  p.  271. 


262  IMPORTANCE   OF   ARRANGEMENT. 

not  be  able  to  trace  it  to  its  real  source;  and  one 
of  the  reasons  why  a  man  of  truly  philosophical  mind 
is  able  *  to  make  things  plain '  even  to  illiterate  hear- 
ers, is,  that  he  presents  clear  thoughts  in  a  proper 
order."  ^  Many  persons  appear  to  think  that  intelli- 
gibility is  altogether  an  affair  of  style ;  when  in  fact 
it  depends  quite  as  much  on  clear  thinking  and  on 
good  arrangement  as  on  perspicuous  expression.  It 
is  melancholy  to  think  how  large  a  portion  of  the 
people,  even  in  favored  communities,  really  do  not 
understand  most  of  the  preaching  they  hear.  Not  a 
few  would  say,  like  Tennyson's  "  Northern  Farmer," 
if  they  spoke  with  equal  frankness,  that  they  had 
often  heard  ''parson  a  bummin'  awaay," 

<*  An'  I  niver  knaw'd  whot  a  mean'd,  but  I  thowt  a  'ad  summut 

to  saay, 
An'  I  thowt  a  said  whot  a  owt  to  *a  said,  an'  I  corned  awaay.'* 

And  not  merely  is  this  true  of  the  comparatively  igno- 
rant and  stolidly  inattentive,  but  many  sermons  are 
not  understood  by  the  better  class  of  hearers.  "  The 
audience  keep  nothing  of  the  discourse ;  they  carry 
away,  in  retiring,  an  indistinct  mass  of  remarks,  of 
assertions,  of  appeals,  which  nothing  coordinates  in 
their  memory,  and  the  impressions  received  are 
summed  up  in  the  saddest  criticism  that  can  be 
made  by  a  devout  person  who  came  to  hear  with 
attention :  I  do  not  know  exactly  what  the  preacher 
preached  about."  ^  Besides,  something  worse  may 
happen  than  that  the  discourse  should  not  be  under- 
stood; it  may  be  misunderstood,  utterly,  and  with 
deplorable  results.  We  must  strive  not  merely  to 
render  it  possible  that  the  people  should  understand 
us,  but  impossible  that  they  should  misunderstand.^ 

1  Ripley,  Sac.  Rhet.  p.  85. 

2  Coquerel,  Observ.  sur  la  Pred.,  p.  160. 

8  Comp.  on  Perspicuity  of  Style,  Part  III.  chap,  ii 


IMPORTANCE  OF  ARRANGEMENT.    263 

Again,  it  greatly  contributes  to  make  the  discourse 
pleasing,  '*  Order  is  heaven's  first  law."  Even  those 
phenomena  in  nature  which  seem  most  irregular,  and 
those  scenes  which  appear  to  be  marked  by  the  wild- 
est variety,  are  pervaded  by  a  subtle  order,  without 
which  they  would  not  please.  Chaos  might  be  ter- 
rible, but  could  never  be  beautiful.  And  discourses, 
which  are  pleasing  but  appear  to  have  no  plan,  will 
be  found  really  to  possess  an  order  of  their  own,  how- 
ever unobtrusive  or  peculiar.  An  ill-arranged  sermon 
may  of  course  contain  particular  passages  that  are 
pleasing,  but  even  these  would  appear  to  still  greater 
advantage  as  parts  of  an  orderly  whole,  and  the  gen- 
eral effect  of  that  whole  must  be  incomparably  bet- 
ter. Let  it  be  added  that  a  well-arranged  discourse 
will  much  more  surely  keep  the  attention  of  the  audi- 
ence. And  this  not  merely  because  it  is  more  in- 
telligible and  more  pleasing,  but  also  because,  being 
conformed  to  the  natural  laws  of  human  thinking,  it 
will  more  readily  carry  the  hearer's  thoughts  along 
with  it. 

Further,  good  arrangement  makes  a  discourse  more 
persuasive.  Both  in  presenting  motives  and  in  appeals 
to  feeling,  order  is  of  great  importance.  He  who  wishes 
to  break  a  hard  rock  with  his  sledge,  does  not  ham- 
mer here  and  there  over  the  surface,  but  multiplies 
his  blows  upon  a  certain  point  or  along  a  certain  line. 
They  who  lift  up  huge  buildings  apply  their  motive 
power  systematically,  at  carefully  chosen  points.  So 
when  motives  are  brought  to  bear  upon  the  will.^ 
And  the  hearer's  feelings  will  be  much  more  power- 
fully and  permanently  excited,  when  appeals  are 
made  in  some  natural  order.  **  We  may,  by  a  word 
or  an  isolated  act,  give  a  movement  to  the  soul,  in- 
clining it  immediately  to  a  certain  object,  to  perform 

1  As  to  the  order  of  Arguments,  see  above,  Part  I.  chap  vii.  §  6. 


264  IMPORTANCE   OF   ARRANGEMENT. 

an  act  of  will ;  but  this  movement  is  only  a  shock. 
By  the  same  means  we  may  repeat,  multiply  these 
shocks.  .  .  .  Eloquence  consists  in  maintaining  move- 
ment by  the  development  of  a  thought  or  proof,  in 
perpetuating  it,  according  to  the  expression  of  Cicero, 
*  What  is  eloquence  but  a  continuous  movement  of 
the  soul?'"  1 

And  finally,  it  causes  the  discourse  to  be  more 
easily  remembered. 

The  importance  of  arrangement  may  be  further 
seen  by  observing  what  are  the  principal  elements  of 
good  arrangement.  They  appear  to  be  unity,  order, 
and  proportion.^  It  might  seem  quite  unnecessary  to 
urge  the  importance  of  unity  in  a  discourse,  but  it  is 
very  often  neglected  in  practice,  particularly  in  text- 
sermons  and  expository  sermons,  which  are  frequently 
made  up  of  two  or  three  little  sermons  in  succession. 
Whether  the  unity  be  that  of  a  doctrinal  proposition, 
of  an  historical  person,  or  of  a  practical  design,  in 
some  way  there  must  be  unity.  And  not  only  this, 
but  order.  All  that  is  said  might  be  upon  the  same 
subject,  while  the  several  thoughts  by  no  means  fol- 
low one  another  according  to  their  natural  relations, 
or  according  to  the  design  of  the  discourse.  But 
further,  there  must  be  proportion.  This  involves  two 
things.  The  several  parts  of  the  discourse,  whether 
they  are  distinctly  indicated  or  not,  must  be  so  treated 
as  to  make  up  a  symmetrical  whole.  .  Not  that  they 
are  to  be  all  discussed  at  the  same  length,  but  at  a 
length  proportioned  to  their  relations  to  each  other 
and  to  the  entire  discourse.  And  besides  this  pro- 
portion of  natural  symmetry,  there  is  that  of  specific 
design.     One  may  treat  substantially  the  same  topic, 

1  Vinet,  p.  289. 

2  Or  as  Genung  (Prac.  Rhet.  p.  263)  well  says :  Distinction,  Se- 
quence, Climax. 


IMPORTANCE   OF  ARRANGEMENT.         265 

in  essentially  the  same  manner,  and  yet  greatly  vary 
the  length  of  particular  parts,  and  the  stress  laid  upon 
them,  according  to  the  object  then  and  there  had  in 
view;  just  as  two  animals  are  often  found  constructed 
according  to  the  same  plan,  and  with  equal  symme- 
try, while  yet  certain  bones  are  of  exceedingly  dif- 
ferent size,  being  adapted  to  special  functions. 

Coquerel  says  that  the  lack  of  method  is  the  most 
common  fault  of  preaching,  and  the  most  inexcus- 
able because  usually  the  result  of  insufficient  labor. 
"  A  man  cannot  give  himself  all  the  qualities  of  the 
orator ;  but  by  taking  the  necessary  pains  he  can  con- 
nect his  ideas,  and  proceed  with  order  in  the  compo- 
sition of  a  discourse."^  Without  specific  talent  for 
building  discourse,  one  will  not  find  it  an  easy  task, 
and  may  never  become  able  to  strike  out  plans  that 
will  be  remarkably  felicitous;  but  a  fair  degree  of 
success  in  arrangement  is  certainly  within  the  reach 
of  all,  provided  they  are  willing  to  work. 

^  Coquerel,  p.  163. 


266    THE   SEVERAL  PARTS   OF   A  SERMON. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  SEVERAL  PARTS   OF  A  SERMON. 
§  I.  Introduction.     §  2.  Discussion.     §  3.  Conclusion. 

I^HE  analysis  of  a  discourse  which  some  writers 
have  proposed  is  too  artificiaL  Some  of  the 
parts  which  they  distinguish,  are  very  often  blended 
with  other  parts.  The  exposition^  for  instance,  will 
often  constitute  the  introduction,  and  in  many  cases 
no  formal  exposition  is  necessary  or  appropriate. 
The  proposition  of  the  subject  scarcely  needs  to  be 
treated  as  a  distinct  part  of  the  discourse.  It  is 
rather,  if  formally  stated  at  all,  a  transition  from  the 
introduction  to  the  discussion  of  the  subject,  and  so  be- 
longs to  both.  The  simplest  and  most  natural  analy- 
sis would  seem  to  be  that  which  gives  three  parts, 
namely,  the  introduction,  the  discussion  (including 
divisions,  when  these  are  made),  and  the  conclusion. 

§   I.    THE  INTRODUCTION.^ 

(i)  It  can  scarcely  be  necessary  to  argue  at  length 
to  the  effect  that  sermons  ought  generally  to  have 
an  introduction.  Men  have  a  natural  aversion  to 
abruptness,  and  delight  in  a  somewhat  gradual  ap- 
proach. A  building  is  rarely  pleasing  in  appearance 
without  a  porch,  or  something  corresponding  to  a 
porch.  The  shining  light  of  dawn,  which  shineth 
more  and  more  till  the  perfect  day,  teaches  us  a  les- 

1  This  topic  is  very  fully  and  carefully  treated  by  Quintilian,  IV. 
I,  and  by  Claude.     See  also  Vinet,  Hoppin,  Phelps,  and  others. 


THE   SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON.     26/ 

son.  And  so  any  composition  or  address  which  has 
no  introduction,  is  apt  to  look  incomplete.  An  elab- 
orate piece  of  music  will  always  have  a  prelude,  or  at 
least  a  few  introductory  notes;  and  in  poems,  his- 
tories, etc.,  there  is  usually  some  introduction.  The 
same  thing  is  true  as  to  very  many  books  of  the  Bible. 
The  introduction  has  two  chief  objects:  to  interest 
our  hearers  in  the  subject,  and  to  prepare  them  for 
understanding  it.  As  to  the  former,  a  preacher  may 
usually,  it  is  true,  count  on  a  certain  willingness  to 
hear.  Not  many  come  who  are  hostile  to  the  truth, 
but  very  many,  alas  !  who  are  sadly  careless  about  it. 
And  a  much  more  lively  attention  may  be  secured 
by  an  interesting  introduction.  "  We  all  know  how 
much  depends  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life  upon  first 
impressions.  The  success  of  his  sermon  often  de- 
pends upon  the  first  impressions  which  a  preacher 
makes  upon  his  hearers  in  his  exordium.  If  these 
Impressions  be  favorable,  his  audience  will  listen  to 
the  remaining  part  of  his  discourse  with  pleasure  and 
attention  ;  and  consequently,  with  profit."  ^  Our  aim 
should  be  to  excite  not  merely  an  intellectual  inter- 
est, but,  so  far  as  possible  at  the  outset,  a  spiritual  and 
practical  interest  —  to  bring  our  hearers  into  sym- 
pathy with  our  own  feeling,  and  attune  their  minds 
into  harmony  with  the  subject  we  design  to  present. 
One  may  sometimes  expressly  request  attention,  as 
did  Moses  (Deut.  iv.  i),  Isaiah  (xxviii.  14),  Stephen 
(Acts  vii.  2),  and  our  Lord  (Matt.  xv.  10) ;  but  such 
a  request,  if  often  repeated,  would  lose  its  force,  and 
it  is  usually  best  to  aim  at  saying  something  which  will 
at  once  interest  the  hearer's  mind.  "  What  is  the  best 
way,'*  asked  a  young  preacher  of  an  older  one,  *'  to 
get  the  attention  of  the  congregation  ?  "  **  Give  *em 
something  to  attend  to,"  was  the  gruff  reply. 
^  Potter,  Sac.  Eloquence,  p.  97. 


26S    THE   SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON. 

The  other  object,  to  prepare  the  audience  for  un- 
derstanding the  subject,  is  obviously  very  important, 
and  to  some  extent  can  often  be  effected.  But  our 
efforts  in  this  respect  must  be  carefully  guarded 
against  the  danger  of  anticipating  something  which 
properly  belongs  to  the  body  of  the  discourse. 

The  German  preachers  very  often  give  an  intro- 
duction before  announcing  the  text.  This  fashion 
appears  to  have  originated  in  the  fact  that  most  of 
them  are  required  to  take  their  text  from  \}ci^  pericope^ 
or  lesson  appointed  for  the  day,  so  that  it  may  be 
assumed  as  to  some  extent  known  already,  before  it 
is  announced.  The  habitual  practice  of  thus  begin- 
ning with  an  introduction  is  apt  to  make  it  too 
general,  or  pointless,  or  far-fetched,  —  faults  not  un- 
frequently  seen  in  the  German  discourses ;  but  some 
introductions  of  this  sort  are  exceedingly  felicitous, 
and  the  practice  is  well  worthy  of  occasional  adop- 
tion among  ourselves. 

There  are  cases  in  which  it  is  best  to  dispense  with 
introduction,  and  plunge  at  once  into  the  discussion ; 
for  example,  when  the  sermon  must  needs  be  long, 
or  when  nothing  has  been  struck  out  that  would  make 
a  really  good  introduction.  In  familiar  addresses,  as 
at  prayer-meetings,  Sunday  School  meetings,  and  the 
like,  this  course  is  quite  often  preferable.  In  all 
preaching,  let  there  be  a  good  introduction,  or  none 
at  all.  "Well  begun  is  half  done."  And  ill  begun  is 
apt  to  be  wholly  ruined. 

(2)  The  sources  from  which  the  preacher  may 
draw  introductions  are  extremely  numerous  and  va- 
rious. There  may,  however,  be  some  advantage  in 
classifying  them  as  follows  :  — 

(^)  The  text.  Wherever  the  meaning  of  the  text 
requires  explanation,  this  explanation  may  of  course 
form  the  introduction.     So,  too,  when  an  explanation 


THE   SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON.     269 

of  the  context  would  throw  light  on  the  meaning 
of  the  text.^  These  seem  to  be  very  natural  sources ; 
and  Robert  Hall,  with  his  severe  taste,  commonly 
began  with  some  explanation  of  the  text  or  the  con- 
text, preferring  this  to  more  ambitious  introductions. 
And  if  not  for  explanation  proper,  there  may  be  oc- 
casion for  illustration  of  the  text  by  means  of  his- 
torical and  geographical  knowledge,  such  as  will 
make  its  meaning,  though  not  more  clear,  yet  more 
vivid  and  interesting.  In  other  cases,  some  account 
of  the  writer  of  the  text,  or  of  the  condition  of  any 
particular  persons  whom  he  addressed  (as  in  the  case 
of  Paul),  may  serve  to  interest  hearers  in  the  text, 
or  to  prepare  them  for  understanding  it. 

{b)  The  subject  to  be  discus sed^  if  obvious  from 
the  mere  statement  of  the  text,  or  if  announced  at 
the  outset,  may  then  furnish  an  introduction  in  various 
ways.  We  may  remark  on  its  relation  to  some  other 
subject,  e,  g.  "  to  the  genus,  of  which  the  subject  is  a 
species,"  or  to  some  opposed  or  similar  subject,  or 
one  related  to  it  as  cause,  or  consequence,  or  case  in 
point.  Where  the  sermon  is  designed  to  be  explan- 
atory or  practical,  an  introduction  on  the  importance 
of  the  subject  will  often  be  appropriate ;  where  the 
sermon  is  to  establish  the  truth  of  a  proposition,  or 
to  exhibit  its  importance,  the  introduction  will  fre- 
quently explain  the  nature  of  the  subject  involved. 
The  preacher  "  may  state  the  intellectual  advantages 
to  be  derived  from  discussing  such  a  theme.  The 
subject  may  be  the  doctrine  of  moral  evil,  or  that  of 
divine  sovereignty;  it  may  be  stated  at  the  begin- 
ning, that  these  are  the  greatest  problems  of  the 
human  mind  meeting  the  philosopher  as  well  as  the 
theologian ;  that  they  have  called  forth  the  strength 

1  As  to  the  method  of  pulpit  exposition,  see  above.  Part  I.  chap, 
▼i.  §  2. 


2/0    THE   SEVERAL   PARTS    OF   A   SERMON. 

of  the  best  intellects  of  the  race;  that  no  problems 
are  more  difficult,  and  therefore  none  more  deserving 
of  the  attention  of  thinking  minds.  He  may  state 
the  connections  of  the  subject  with  other  more  prac- 
tical spiritual  truths.  He  may  remove  the  prejudice 
that  the  doctrine  has  no  immediate  practical  bearing 
or  utility,  even  as  depravity,  for  instance,  or  the  doc- 
trine of  sin,  lies  in  one  sense,  at  the  base  of  the  whole 
Christian  system,  of  the  atonement,  regeneration, 
holiness,  and  the  Christian  life.  He  may  make  some 
historical  allusion  naturally  connected  with  the  theme, 
which  always  forms  an  attractive  introduction."  ^  And 
so  in  many  other  ways.  '^ 

(^)  The  occasion.  If  the  sermon  has  reference 
to  some  particular  season  of  the  year,  or  is  preached 
at  some  special  religious  meeting,  in  connection  with 
the  administration  of  an  ordinance,  or  the  like,  we 
may  begin  by  remarking  upon  the  occasion.  So  with 
allusions  to  the  character  of  the  times  in  which  we 
live,  or  to  recent  events  or  existing  circumstances,  as 
showing  why  the  particular  text  or  subject  has  been 
chosen,  or  as  tending  to  awaken  a  livelier  interest  in 
it.  ^  Or  we  may  speak  of  doubts  known  to  exist 
as  to  the  question  involved,  or  hostility  to  the  truth 
in  this  respect,  or  of  some  common  mistake,  or  some 
prevailing  or  growing  error,  or  evil  practice,  with  ref- 
erence to  this  subject.  *  In  other  cases  allusion  is 
made  to  the  religious  condition  of  the  church  or 
congregation,  or  cheering  news  from  some  other 
church  or  part  of  the  country.  Sometimes  one  may 
refer  to  a  subject  or  subjects  heretofore  discussed,  as 
furnishing  occasion  for  presenting  to-day  the  present 
subject ;  and  the  hymn  which  has  just  been  sung,  or 

1  Hoppin,  pp.  342,  343.  2  Comp.  Vinet,  p.  302. 

8  For  example,  Wesley's  sermon  on  the  Great  Assize. 
*  Comp.  Otto,  Prak,  Theol.,  s.  368. 


THE   SEVERAL  PARTS   OF  A   SERMON.    2/1 

a  passage  of  Scripture  (not  containing  the  text) 
which  has  been  read,  will  occasionally  afford  an  in- 
teresting introduction.  In  rare  cases,  the  preacher 
may  begin  by  speaking  of  himself,  whether  it  be  of 
his  feelings  as  a  preacher,  of  his  interest  as  a  pastor, 
of  some  particular  epoch  in  his  connection  with  this 
church,  or  of  something  belonging  to  his  personal 
experience  as  a  Christian.  ^  Only,  let  the  preacher 
beware  of  apologies.  These  often  create  the  suspi- 
cion of  insincerity,  where  it  is  undeserved,  because 
they  are  sometimes  in  fact  insincere,  and  because  the 
preacher  who  feels  at  the  outset  oppressed  by  ill 
health  or  unfavorable  circumstances,  may,  quite  un- 
expectedly to  himself,  rise  to  the  subject,  and  suc- 
ceed remarkably  well.  Let  a  preacher  never  say  he 
feels  unusually  embarrassed  on  the  present  occasion, 
as  we  hear  it  so  often.  Apologies  are  like  pub- 
lic rebukes  for  disorder  in  the  congregation,  in  that 
one  will  very  seldom  regret  having  omitted  them, 
however  strongly  inclined  at  the  moment  to  speak. 
When  there  is  any  real  occasion,  whether  in  begin- 
ning or  ending  the  sermon,  for  what  might  be  called 
apology,  let  it  never  proceed,  or  seem  to  proceed, 
from  anxiety  as  to  the  preacher's  reputation ;  let  it 
be  brief,  quiet,  and,  as  it  were,  incidental. 

The  question  will  often  require  to  be  decided 
whether  any  of  these  remarks  upon  the  occasion  shall 
be  made  in  the  introduction  or  in  the  conclusion. 
We  must  consider  whether  a  particular  remark  of  this 
kind  is  better  suited  to  awaken  interest  in  the  discus- 
sion, or  to  deepen  the  impression  made  by  the  appli- 
cation. Affecting  personal  allusions,  in  which  the 
preacher  might  be  interrupted  by  his  emotions,  are  in 
general  better  reserved  to  the  conclusion. 

1  To  this  class  belongs  an  exceedingly  felicitous  introduction  of 
Spurgeon's,  First  Series,  Sermon  I. 


272     THE   SEVERAL   PARTS    OF   A   SERMON. 

{d)  There  is  an  immense  variety  of  other  sources, 
which  do  not  admit  of  classification,  and  can  only  be 
set  down  as  miscellaneous.  The  preacher's  inventive 
genius  should  be  freely  and  widely  exercised,  in 
seeking  for  every  particular  sermon  the  most  thor- 
oughly appropriate  introduction.^ 

(3)  Let  us  turn  to  consider  the  quahties  of  a  good 
Introduction.^ 

The  introduction  must  present  some  thought  closely 
related  to  the  theme  of  discourse,  so  as  to  lead  to  the 
theme  with  naturalness  and  ease,  and  yet  a  thought 
quite  distinct  from  the  discussion.  Inexperienced 
preachers  very  frequently  err  by  anticipating  in  the 
introduction  something  which  belongs  to  the  body  of 
the  discourse;  and  the  danger  of  doing  this  should 
receive  their  special  attention. 

As  a  rule,  the  introduction  should  not  aim  to  give 
instruction  separate  and  apart  from  the  lessons  of  the 
discourse.  Its  design  is  altogether  preparatory.  The 
preacher  will  often  find  himself  tempted,  especially  in 
introductions  drawn  from  the  text  or  context,  to 
remark  in  passing  upon  interesting  matters  which  are 
somehow  suggested,  but  are  foreign  to  his  purpose  on 
that  occasion.  This  temptation  should  be  resisted, 
except  in  very  peculiar  cases.  You  have  determined 
to  carry  the  audience  along  a  certain  line  of  thought, 
hoping  to  arrive  at  a  definite  and  important  conclu- 


^  The  student  may  consult,  as  a  few  examples  of  very  striking  in- 
troductions, Bossuet's  "  Funeral  Sermon  for  the  Duchess  of  Orleans," 
though  this  has  some  obvious  faults ;  Monod's  Sermon  on  "  God  is 
Love ; "  Robert  Robinson  on  "  If  ye  love  me,  keep  my  command- 
ments ;  "  and  Richard  Fuller  on  "  The  Three  Hebrews  in  the  Furnace  " 
—  where  some  would  think  it  better  to  omit  the  first  words. 

2  These  are  well  stated  by  Hoppin,  p.  344  fE.  He  regards  four 
qualities  as  indispensable  to  a  good  introduction :  Simplicity,  mod- 
esty, fitness,  suggestiveness.  Comp.  also  the  elaborate  discussion  by 
Phelps,  Theory  of  Preaching,  Lects.  XVL-XVIIL 


THE   SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON,     2^1 

sion.  Do  not  first  wander  about  and  stray  awhile 
into  other  paths,  but  lead  on  towards  the  route 
selected,  and  enter  it. 

The  introduction  should  generally  consist  of  a  sin- 
gle thought;  we  do  not  want  a  porch  to  a  porch. 
But  there  are  many  exceptions  to  this  rule,  and  it  is 
frequently  appropriate  to  present  some  introductory 
thought,  and  afterwards  give  an  exposition,  which  in 
such  cases  becomes  a  part  of  the  body  of  the  dis- 
course, or  else  constitutes  a  sort  of  halt,  while  we 
clear  the  way  for  the  discussion. 

It  is  desirable  to  avoid  the  practice  of  beginning 
with  some  very  broad  and  commonplace  generality, 
as  with  reference  to  human  nature  or  life,  to  the  uni- 
verse or  the  Divine  Being.  Of  course  there  is  some- 
times real  occasion  for  this,  but  many  preachers 
practise  it  as  an  habitual  method,  and  it  is  apt  to 
sound  like  an  opening  promise  of  dulness,  —  a  plati- 
tude to  start  on. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  introduction  must  not  seem 
to  promise  too  much,  in  its  thoughts,  style,  or  deliv- 
ery. Let  it  be  such  as  to  excite  interest  and  awaken 
expectation,  provided  the  expectation  can  be  fairly 
met  by  the  body  of  the  discourse.  It  should  not  be 
highly  argumentative,  nor  highly  impassioned.  As 
to  the  latter,  it  must  be  remembered  that  even  if  the 
preacher  is  greatly  excited  at  the  outset,  the  audience 
usually  are  not,  and  he  had  better  restrain  himself,  so 
as  not  to  get  beyond  the  range  of  their  sympathies. 
When  Cicero  broke  out  with  his  opening  words 
against  Catiline,  the  Senate  was  already  much 
excited ;  and  so  with  Massillon  at  the  funeral  of 
Louis  the  Great.^  Such  exceptional  cases  must  be 
decided  as  they  arise.  "  It  is  the  privilege  of  talent 
and  the  fruit  of  study  and  experience,  to  know  when 

1  **  My  brethren,  God  only  is  great,"  were  his  first  words. 
i8 


274    THE    SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON. 

to  venture  and  when  to  abstain.  It  cannot  be 
allowed  to  teaching,  strictly  so  called,  to  set  aside 
talent  or  anticipate  the  dictates  of  experience."  ^ 
Moreover,  while  earnestly  seeking  to  make  the  intro- 
duction interesting  and  engaging,  we  must  shun  the 
sensational  and  the  pretentious.  Whatever  savors  of 
display  is  exceedingly  objectionable  in  a  preacher, 
and  particularly  at  the  outset.  And  he  should  not 
merely  begin  with  personal  modesty,  but  also  with 
official  modesty,  reserving  for  some  later  period  of 
the  sermon  anything  which  it  may  be  proper  to  state 
with  the  authority  belonging  to  his  office. 

A  good  introduction  would,  in  general,  be  exclu- 
sively adapted  to  the  particular  discourse.  In  some 
cases,  a  certain  general  thought  might  with  equal 
propriety  introduce  several  different  subjects.  Thus 
some  account  of  Paul  might  form  the  introduction  to 
sermons  on  various  passages  of  his  writings ;  yet  the 
account  must  in  almost  every  case  be  at  least  slightly 
varied,  if  it  is  to  be  exactly  adapted  to  the  design. 
So  with  the  description  of  a  Scripture  locality;  and 
so,  to  some  extent,  with  introductions  personal  to  the 
speaker.  Lawyers  make  many  speeches  on  very 
similar  subjects  or  occasions ;  and  this  fact  partly  ex- 
plains Cicero's  statement  that  he  kept  some  introduc- 
tions on  hand  for  any  speech  they  might  suit — as 
was  also  done  by  Demosthenes.^  We  should  beware 
of  set  phrases  and  stereotyped  forms  of  introduction ; 
the  people  very  soon  begin  to  recognize  them,  and 
the  effect  is  then  anything  else  than  to  awaken  inter- 
est and  excite  curiosity.  Nowhere  is  it  more  impor- 
tant to  have  the  stimulus  and  charm  of  variety,  and 
this  is  best  attained  by  habitually  seeking  to  give  the 
introduction  a  specific  and  exact  adaptation. 

The   introduction    must    not   be   too   long.      An 

1  Vinet,  p.  105.  2  Comp.  Vinet,  p.  301. 


THE   SEVERAL  PARTS   OF  A   SERMON.    275 

eminent  preacher,  much  inclined  to  this  fault,  was 
one  day  accosted  by  a  plain  old  man  as  follows: 
"  Well,  you  kept  us  so  long  in  the  porch  this  morn- 
ing that  we  hardly  got  into  the  house  at  all."  And 
it  was  said  of  John  Howe  by  some  one :  "  Dear  good 
man,  he  is  so  long  in  laying  the  cloth  that  I  lose  my 
appetite,  and  begin  to  think  there  will  be  no  dinner 
after  all."  Of  course  the  introduction  may  sometimes 
be  much  longer  than  would  be  generally  proper;  and 
the  attempt  of  some  writers  to  tell  how  many  sen- 
tences it  should  contain,  is  exceedingly  unwise.  But 
**  where  one  sermon  is  faulty  from  being  too  abruptly 
introduced,  one  hundred  are  faulty  from  a  long  and 
tiresome  preface."  ^ 

The  introduction,  though  simple  and  inelaborate, 
should  be  carefully  prepared.  Quintilian  remarks 
that  a  faulty  proem  may  look  like  a  scarred  face; 
and  that  he  will  certainly  be  thought  a  very  bad 
helmsman  who  lets  the  ship  strike  in  going  out  of  the 
harbor.2  The  extemporaneous  speaker  should  know 
exactly  what  he  is  to  say  in  the  introduction.  But  it 
is  very  doubtful  whether  he  ought,  as  is  frequently 
recommended  and  practised,  to  have  the  introduction 
written^  when  the  remainder  of  the  discourse  is  un- 
written. It  is  too  apt  to  seem  formal,  and  the  transi- 
tion to  the  unwritten  to  be  abrupt  and  precipitous, 
something  like  stepping  from  a  wharf  into  deep 
water,  as  compared  with  quietly  wading  out  from  the 
shore.  It  will  sometimes  happen  that  at  an  early 
stage  of  the  preparation,  an  introduction  will  occur  to 
the  mind ;  more  commonly,  it  has  to  be  struck  out  or 
selected  after  the  principal  materials  have  been 
gathered.  But  as  to  the  composition  of  the  sermon  in 
detail  (whether  it  be  written  or  unwritten  composi- 
tion), the  introduction  should   be  composed  before 

1  Shedd,  p.  182.  2  Quint.  IV.  i,  61. 


276    THE   SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A  SERMON. 

the  body  of  the  discourse.  This  is  the  natural  order, 
and  the  finished  introduction  will  assist  the  preacher 
in  composing  the  remainder,  somewhat  as  it  will  help 
the  hearers.  An  introduction  to  a  discourse  is  quite 
different  from  a  preface  to  a  book. 

The  discussion  of  this  subject  may  close  with  a 
useful  remark  from  Vinet:  "Among  experienced 
preachers  we  find  few  examples  of  exordiums  alto- 
gether defective;  we  find  few  good  ones  among 
preachers  at  their  beginning.  We  hence  naturally 
infer,  that  there  is  in  this  part  of  the  discourse 
something  of  special  delicacy,  but  nothing  which 
demands  peculiar  faculties.  "^ 

§  2.    THE  DISCUSSION. 

(i)  The  discussion,  or  body  of  the  discourse, 
must  be  constructed  on  some  plan,  or  it  is  not  a  dis- 
course at  all.  Though  there  be  no  divisions,  and 
no  formal  arrangement  of  any  kind,  yet  the  thoughts 
must  follow  each  other  according  to  the  natural  laws 
of  thought.  Men  who  rely  on  their  powers  of  abso- 
lute extemporizing,  or  who  imagine  themselves  to 
possess  a  quasi-inspiration,  usually  stagger  and  stray 
in  every  direction,  following  no  definite  line,  and 
accomplishing  very  little,  save  where,  as  we  have 
seen,  passion  comes  in,  and  strikes  out  an  order  of 
its  own.  2 

The  plan  of  a  discourse  in  the  broadest  sense 
includes  the  introduction  and  the  conclusion,  but  as 
these  are  here  considered  separately,  we  may,  for 
convenience,  speak  of  the  plan  as  belonging  rather 
to  the  discussion,  or  body  of  discourse,  with  its 
divisions  and  subdivisions. 

1  Vinet,  p.  297. 

^  Comp.  chap,  i.,  on  the  importance  of  arrangement. 


THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OF  A  SERMON.  277 

It  is  not  well  to  call  the  body  of  the  discourse  the 
proofs  as  a  general  name,  though  some  able  writers 
have  done  so.  The  treatment  frequently  consists  of 
proof,  in  whole  or  in  part,  but  frequently  also  of 
explanation,  or  the  impressive  exhibition  of  a  theme, 
without  any  process  of  proof.  In  hortatory  sermons 
there  is  a  series  of  motives,  but  to  bring  these  to 
bear  on  the  will  is  a  very  different  thing  from  prov- 
ing, though  often  confounded  with  it.^  After  exclud- 
ing the  introduction  and  conclusion,  the  remain- 
der is  called  by  various  names,  as  the  division,  the 
development,  the  argument,  the  treatment;  but  the 
discussion  seems  to  be,  upon  the  whole,  the  best 
term.2  But  our  present  concern  with  this  is  to 
consider  the  fact  that  it  must  have  a  plan. 

Sometimes  a  plan  will  occur  to  us  with  the  sub- 
ject, or  on  very  little  reflection.  In  other  cases  we 
only  get  a  variety  of  separate  thoughts.  It  is  well 
then  to  jot  them  down  as  they  occur,  to  make  the 
thoughts  objective,  so  that  we  may  draw  off  and  look 
at  them,  and  sooner  or  later  a  plan  of  treatment  will 
present  itself.  This  effort  to  make  out  an  arrange- 
ment will  often  suggest  to  us  new  thoughts  which 
otherwise  we  should  never  have  gained.^ 

One  ought  to  seek  not  merely  for  some  plan,  but 
for  the  best.  "  There  are  plans  energetic  and  rich, 
which,  applying  the  lever  as  deeply  as  possible, 
raise  the  entire  mass  of  the  subject;  there  are  others 
which  escape  the  deepest  divisions  of  the  matter, 
and  which  raise,  so  to  speak,  only  one  layer  of  the 
subject.  Here  it  is,  especially  here,  in  the  concep- 
tion of  plans,  that  we  distinguish  those  orators  who 
are  capable  of  the  good,  from  those  who  are  capable 
of  the  better  —  of  that  better,  to  say  the  truth,  which 

1  Comp.  Part  I.  chap.  ix.  on  Application. 

2  Etter,  p.  303.  *  Comp.  chap.  L 


2/8    THE   SEVERAL  PARTS   OF   A  SERMON. 

is  the  decisive  evidence  of  talent  or  of  labor.  .  .  . 
Every  one  should  strive,  as  far  as  possible,  for  this 
better,  and  not  be  content  with  the  first  plan  which 
may  present  itself  to  his  thought,  unless,  after  hav- 
ing fathomed  it,  he  finds  it  sufficient  for  his  purpose, 
suited  to  exhaust  his  subject,  to  draw  forth  its  power 
—  unless,  in  a  word,  he  can  see  nothing  beyond  it. "  ^ 
The  plan  ought  to  be  simple^  not  only  free  from 
obscurity,  but  free  from  all  straining  after  effect, 
and  yet  ought,  so  far  as  possible,  to  be  fresh  and 
striking.  So  many  sermons  follow  the  beaten  track, 
in  which  we  can  soon  foresee  all  that  is  coming,  as 
to  make  it  a  weary  task  even  for  devout  hearers  to 
listen  attentively.  One  feels  inclined  to  utter  a 
plaintive  cry,  "Worthy  brother,  excellent  brother, 
if  you  could  only  manage  to  drive  us  sometimes  over 
a  different  road,  even  if  much  less  smooth,  even  if 
you  do  not  know  it  very  well  —  I  am  so  tired  of 
this !  "  And  it  is  only  a  plan  which  strikes,  that 
has  any  chance  of  being  remembered.  Still,  we 
must  carefully  avoid  mere  sensational,  odd,  or 
"  smart "  plans.  A  sermon  might  excite  much  inter- 
est, and  be  remembered  long,  by  reason  of  such 
qualities,  without  doing  half  as  much  real  good  as 
another  that  was  heard  quietly  and  soon  forgotten, 
but  made,  so  far  as  it  went,  a  salutary  impression.  ^ 
We  must  also  avoid  grQ2X  formality  of  plan. 

Robert  Hall,3in  a  striking  passage,  criticises  very 
justly  the  stiff  and  minute  method  of  analysis  and 
statement  prevalent  in  his  day.  Many  of  the  older 
English  and  American  preachers  doubtless  erred  in 
this  direction. 


1  Vinet,  pp.  276,  277. 

2  Comp.  as  to  selection  of  Texts,  Part  I.  chap.  i. 

*  Sermon  on  the  Discouragements   and  Supports  of  a  Christian 
Minister,  Works,  Vol.  I.  p.  140. 


THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OF  A  SERMON.  279 

As  regards  formality,  there  has  been  much  im- 
provement during  the  present  century,  but  many 
preachers  are  still  stiff,  uniform,  and  monotonous 
in  their  plans.  ^ 

(2)  The  plan  of  a  discourse  will  usually  embrace  a 
statement  of  the  subject,  what  is  technically  called 
the  Proposition.  There  is  frequently  no  need  of 
this,  the  subject  being  obvious  from  the  text,  or 
sufficiently  indicated  by  the  introduction.  In  most 
cases,  however,  the  subject  should  be  distinctly 
stated,  even  in  many  text-sermons  and  expository 
sermons,  and  sometimes  the  proposition  requires 
great  care. 2  As  to  its  form,  the  proposition  may  be 
logical  ox  rhetorical.  "Religion  produces  happiness'* 
would  be  a  logical,  "The  pleasures  of  piety  "  a  rhe- 
torical proposition.  The  former  conduces  to  unity, 
consecutive  thinking,  argumentative  force;  the  lat- 
ter to  freedom  and  variety  of  treatment,  giving 
room  for  proof,  impressive  exhibition,  application,  or 
whatever  mode  of  treatment  may  be  desired.  A 
preacher  will  be  likely  to  prefer  one  or  the  other, 
according  to  his  turn  of  mind  and  training.  Which- 
ever he  prefers,  he  ought  frequently  to  employ  the 
other,  for  the  sake  of  his  own  improvement  and  of 
variety  in  his  discourses.     Sometimes  the  two  forms 

1  Examples  of  strikingly  felicitous  plans  may  be  frequently  met 
with  in  the  sermons  of  Saurin,  William  Jay,  and  Spurgeon  ;  see  also 
R.  Hall  on  the  "  Glory  of  God  in  Concealing,"  and  J.  M.  Mason  on 
"  Messiah's  Throne,"  the  latter  having  a  considerable  multiplication 
of  divisions  and  subdivisions,  but  admirably  managed.  The  plans  of 
Spurgeon  incline  to  formality,  those  of  Beecher  are  perhaps  too  dis- 
cursive and  unsymmetrical,  those  of  Maclaren  are  singularly  clear 
and  complete.  F.  W.  Robertson's,  while  striking  and  good,  adhere 
too  monotonously  to  the  twofold  division. 

2  As  to  the  propriety  of  withholding  the  proposition  through 
policy,  see  Part  I.  chap.  vii.  §  2.  Many  writers  on  Homiletics,  as 
Phelps,  Hoppin,  and  others,  make  the  Proposition  a  separate  part  of 
the  discourse  and  treat  it  at  length ;  but  this  is  hardly  necessary, 
Comp.  first  part  of  this  chapter. 


28o     THE   SEVERAL   PARTS    OF   A   SERMON. 

may  both  be  used  in  the  same  discourse;  thus  a  man 
might  announce  as  his  subject,  "Religion  produces 
happiness,  or  the  pleasures  of  piety."  A  variety  of 
the  logical  is  the  interrogative  form.  This  some- 
times awakens  attention  by  seeming  to  leave  it  an 
open  question,  to  be  decided  on  the  present  occasion, 
whether  the  proposition  involved  is  true  or  false,  or 
by  stimulating  curiosity  as  to  the  precise  answer  to 
the  question  which  the  preacher  will  give.  In  some 
cases  it  is  more  consistent  with  modesty  to  propose 
an  inquiry  than  a  process  of  proof.  And  where  the 
subject  requires  to  be  discussed  both  negatively  and 
affirmatively,  the  interrogative  form  of  proposition 
is  particularly  convenient.  "Should  the  preacher's 
subject  be,  for  instance.  Evidences  of  personal  piety, 
it  would  be  more  congruous,  instead  of  exposing 
under  this  statement,  in  several  items,  insufficient 
or  false  evidences,  and  then  mentioning  in  the  same 
series  the  satisfactory  evidences,  to  raise  the  inquiry, 
What  are  genuine  evidences  of  piety.?  In  answer- 
ing this  inquiry,  he  might  either  in  a  didactic  manner 
deny  the  sufficiency  of  certain  supposed  evidences, 
or  propose  various  questions,  such  as,  Is  such  a 
quality,  or  course  of  conduct,  a  genuine  evidence.? 
Is  such  another.?  etc.,  .  .  .  and  then  exhibit  the 
true  evidences."^ 

The  proposition,  or  statement  of  the  subject, 
should  be  complete  (/.  e.y  including  all  that  it  is 
proposed  to  treat),  simple  and  clear,  brief  and  attrac- 
tive.2  It  may  sometimes  be  repeated,  whether  in 
different  forms,  or  in  other  but  equivalent  terms; 
and  occasionally  the  hearers  are  gradually  brought 
up  to  it  by  a  series  of  statements,  the  last  of  which 
is  definite  and  precise,  seeming  to  strike  the  very 

1  Ripley,  p.  54.     Comp.  pp.  52-54. 

2  Comp.  Otto,  Prak.  Theol.  s.  332  ;  Phelps,  Lect.  XX.-XXV. 


THE   SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON.     28 1 

heart  of  the  matter.  Professor  Phelps  has  treated 
the  Proposition  with  great  fulness  and  care.  He 
says,  "A  proposition,  and  a  proposition  studied,  and 
a  proposition  stated,  and  often  a  proposition  finished 
in  elaborate  and  compact  form,  is  a  very  vital  part  of 
pulpit  discourse.  Though  but  a  fragment  in  form, 
it  is  an  index  to  the  whole  style  of  thinking  which 
underlies  the  form." 

(3)  It  is  a  question  of  much  practical  importance 
whether  the  plan  of  a  discourse  ought  to  include 
Divisions^  and  if  so,  what  should  be  their  number, 
character,  order,  and  general  management.^ 

{a)  Two  things  are  obviously  necessary  to  an  effec- 
tive discourse ;  that  there  shall  be  a  plan,  as  we  have 
seen,  and  that  there  shall  be  movement,  progress. 
These  requisites  must  be  harmonized.  The  move- 
ment must  not  be  wild  and  irregular,  like  undis- 
ciplined cavalry,  and  the  orderly  plan  must  not 
involve  such  interruptions  and  pauses  as  would  re- 
tard movement.  Furthermore,  as  a  work  of  art,  a 
discourse  ought  not  to  have  its  joints  obtrusively 
prominent,  nor  its  several  members  attracting  too 
much  of  separate  attention,  but  all  should  stand  forth 
as  one  symmetrical  whole.  The  Greek  and  Roman 
orators,  greatly  concerned  to  make  the  speech  a 
finished  work  of  art,  and  often  anxious  to  hide  the 
labor  bestowed  upon  the  preparation,  seldom  made 
clearly  marked  divisions.  Yet  in  all  cases  they  fol- 
lowed a  definite  plan,  and  advanced  in  an  orderly 
manner,  even  as  Horace  says,^  speaking  of  poetry, 
that  the  power  and  the  beauty  of  order  consists  in 
saying  just  now  what  just  now  ought  to  be  said,  and 

1  The  term  "heads*'  is  practically  synonymous  with  "divisions." 
The  distinction  between  division  and  partition  is  too  refined  for  our 
present  purpose. 

2  Ars  Poetica,  42. 


282     THE   SEVERAL   PARTS    OF   A   SERMON. 

postponing  for  the  present  all  the  rest.  In  much 
the  same  manner  the  Christian  Fathers  preached. 
But  the  great  Schoolmen  of  the  middle  ages,  apply- 
ing the  most  minute  logical  analysis  to  all  subjects 
of  philosophy  and  religion,  established  a  fashion 
which  was  soon  followed  in  preaching  also.  The 
young  preachers,  being  trained  by  the  books  they 
read  and  by  the  oral  teaching  at  the  Universities  to 
nothing  else  than  this  minute  analytical  discussion, 
made  the  mistake,  so  often  made  still,  of  carrying 
lecture-room  methods  into  the  pulpit.  Analysis 
became  the  rage.  Scarcely  anything  was  thought 
of  but  clear  division  and  logical  concatenation,  and 
to  this  was  to  a  great  extent  sacrificed  all  oratorical 
movement  and  artistic  harmony.  Too  much  of  the 
preaching  of  all  the  modern  centuries  has  been 
marred  by  this  fault.  Analytical  exposition  of  topics, 
and  elaborate  argumentation,  have  been  the  great 
concern,  to  the  comparative  neglect  of  simplicity 
and  naturalness,  of  animated  movement  and  practi- 
cal power.  Preachers,  especially  the  educated,  have 
too  often  regarded  instruction  and  conviction  as  the 
aim  of  their  labors,  when  they  are  but  means  of 
leading  men  to  the  corresponding  feeling,  deter- 
mination, and  action.  And  the  custom  being  thus 
established,  it  has  been  followed,  simply  because  it 
was  the  custom,  by  many  practical  and  deeply  earnest 
preachers,  who  limited  and  overcame  the  evils  of 
the  method  as  best  they  could. 

Two  centuries  ago,  when  the  excessive  multipli- 
cation of  formal  divisions  and  equally  formal  sub- 
divisions was  almost  universal  in  France  as  well  as 
in  England,  Fenelon  inveighed  vehemently  against 
the  whole  fashion,  urging  a  return  to  the  methods  of 
the  ancient  orators,^  and  on  this  question  almost  all 

1  Fenelon,  Dialogues  on  Eloq.  Dial.  II. 


THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OF  A  SERMON.  283 

subsequent  writers  have  taken  sides.  Yet  a  certain 
formality  of  division  and  of  general  order  has  con- 
tinued to  be  common  in  France  and  Germany,  and 
for  the  most  part  in  England  and  America.  Dr. 
Arnold  of  Rugby  set  the  example,  and  urged  it  upon 
others,  of  avoiding  divisions,  and  making  the  ser- 
mon a  very  informal  address,  and  since  his  time 
many  preachers  in  the  Church  of  England,  such  as 
Trench  and  Kingsley,  have  followed  that  course.^ 
But  it  is  worthy  of  special  notice  that  the  two  ablest 
and  most  generally  admired  preachers  the  Church 
of  England  has  recently  produced,  Robertson  and 
Liddon,  both  regularly  make  divisions,  and  com- 
monly indicate  them  in  passing,  while  the  former 
frequently  states  his  divisions  beforehand,  and  also 
marks  numerous  subdivisions.  Dr.  John  Watson 
(better  known  as  "  Ian  Maclaren  ")  ^  says,  "  Whether 
a  sermon  ought  to  be  parcelled  out  into  heads  is  an 
important  question.  Three  detached  sermonettes  do 
not  make  one  sermon;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
handful  of  observations  tied  together  by  a  text  are 
not  an  organic  whole.  It  all  depends  on  whether 
the  heads  advance,  ascend,  cumulate,  or  are  inde- 
pendent, disconnected,  parallel.  Heads  are  either 
watertight  compartments,  in  which  case  you  cannot 
pass  from  one  to  the  other,  and  are  exasperated  by 
the  iron  door,  or  they  are  floors  of  a  tower,  in  which 
case  one  will  not  halt  till  he  reaches  the  top,  because 
with  every  fresh  ascent  he  gets  a  wider  view.  It 
was  once  the  fashion  to  have  heads,  and  now  it  is 

1  There  is  said  to  be  of  late  a  similar  movement  on  the  part  of 
some  preachers  in  Germany.  So  in  France  (Potter,  Spoken  Word, 
p.  76)  ;  and  to  some  extent  in  America  there  seems  to  be  in  some 
quarters  a  reaction  against  the  use  of  divisions  which  may  easily  go 
too  far.  See  Phillips  Brooks'  Yale  Lect,  p.  177  f.,  and  Phelps,  p. 
36s  ff. 

^  Cure  of  Souls  (Yale  Lectures  for  1896),  p.  41  f- 


284    THE   SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON. 

the  fashion  not  to  have  heads ;  but  much  can  be  said 
for  the  former  way.  One  likes  rests  and  points  of 
departure." 

From  these  principles  and  facts,  what  are  we  to 
conclude .''  Distinctly  marked  divisions  are  not  neces- 
sary, and  need  not  be  made  where  the  plan  of  the 
discourse  can  be  easily  followed  without  them;  only 
the  preacher  must  remember,  in  judging  on  this 
point,  that  the  plan  is  of  course  familiar  to  him,  and 
his  hearers  may  not  note  transitions  which  are  obvi- 
ous to  his  eye,  unless  attention  be  somehow  called 
to  them.  But  while  not  necessary,  distinctly  marked 
divisions  will  usually  be  of  service,  not  only  in 
making  the  train  of  thought  plain  to  the  hearers, 
but  also  of  service  to  the  preacher  himself,  both  as 
compelling  to  logical  correctness  and  completeness 
of  preparation,  and  as  helping  him  to  remember,  in 
extemporaneous  delivery.  In  every  particular  ser- 
mon or  class  of  sermons,  we  must  decide  the  case 
upon  its  own  merits;  but  it  will  commonly  be  best 
to  make  divisions.  Whether  they  shall  be  slightly 
or  broadly  marked,  and  how  carefully  the  entrance 
upon  a  new  division  should  be  indicated,  must  also 
be  decided  according  to  the  merits  of  the  case. 
Where  the  subject  specially  requires  explanation 
and  argument,  it  will  commonly  be  advantageous  to 
have  clearly  stated  divisions,  and  frequently  sub- 
divisions also;  but  these  must  not  be  so  multiplied, 
nor  so  stated,  as  to  prevent  the  discourse  from  stand- 
ing out  as  a  living  whole,  or  to  interrupt  its  progress- 
ive movement  towards  the  practical  end  in  view. 

Alexander  says^  that  "  as  much  as  a  discourse  gains 
in  method  and  articulation  by  composing  it  accord- 

1  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  p.  52.  Comp.  p.  32.  Dabney  (p.  214, 
note)  refers  to  the  same  passage,  and  gives  the  same  explanation  and 
caution. 


THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OF  A  SERMON.  285 

ing  to  a  logical  analysis  or  programme,  so  much  it 
loses  in  rapidity,  richness,  and  animation ; "  and  so 
he  inclines  to  favor  Fenelon's  view.  But  it  is  to 
be  observed  that  Alexander  formed  this  judgment 
from  his  experience  in  middle  age  with  a  thoroughly 
disciplined  mind,  accustomed  to  compose  in  logical 
order.  In  such  circumstances  a  man  is  apt  to  grow 
weary  of  all  regulated  methods,  so  as  to  feel  relief 
in  disregarding  them,  and  he  may  often  allow  him- 
self to  do  so,  because  his  mind  may  be  relied  on  to 
achieve  a  spontaneous  order.  But  for  most  men, 
especially  the  young,  the  case  is  otherwise,  and  such 
remarks  were  probably  never  designed  for  them. 

It  is  frequently  said  that  secular  orators  at  the 
present  day  make  no  formal  divisions.  But  they 
often  do,  particularly  in  elaborate  addresses  to  a  great 
popular  audience,  sometimes  even  announcing  before- 
hand the  series  of  topics  they  mean  to  discuss.  In 
most  of  the  speeches  made  by  lawyers  and  states- 
men, the  history  of  the  case  or  the  nature  of  the 
question  determines  the  order  of  discussion,  and 
leaves  no  occasion  for  dividing  the  subject  on  any 
other  principle. 

{b)  As  to  the  number  of  divisions,  we  must  con- 
sult simplicity,  and  at  the  same  time  vividness  and 
variety.  It  is  of  course  more  simple  to  have  but 
few,  and  in  many  cases  two  divisions  will  be  most 
natural  and  pleasing.  Vinet  says  of  Bossuet  that 
"he  delights,  like  F^nelon,  in  dichotomy;  and  in 
my  judgment,  divisions  into  two  parts  are  ordinarily 
the  most  tasteful."  ^  But  as  a  uniform  method,  the 
twofold  arrangement  scarcely  presents  the  requisite 
variety.  It  is  also  highly  desirable  that  the  divi- 
sions, as  stated,  should  be  interesting,  having  the 
vividness   which    belongs    to    concrete    or    specific 

1  Vinet,  p.  334. 


286    THE   SEVERAL   PARTS    OF  A   SERMON. 

thoughts,  and  this  can  often  be  attained  only  by  hav- 
ing several  divisions,  since  the  reduction  to  a  smaller 
number  would  render  them  abstract  or  general. 
"  Take  the  topic.  In  what  consists  the  glory  of  gospel 
preaching?  In  that  it  (i)  is  appointed  by  the  Son  of 
God;  (2)  makes  known  the  will  of  God;  (3)  promises 
the  grace  of  God;  (4)  is  performed  in  the  strength 
of  God;  (5)  is  attended  by  the  blessing  of  God,  and 
(6)  leads  souls  to  the  presence  of  God.  The  division 
might  be  simplified:  (i)  in  its  establishment;  (2)  in 
its  subject ;  (3)  in  its  operation  and  effects.  But  the 
former  is  to  be  preferred  because  more  striking."  ^ 
Yet  when  the  heads  become  as  many  as  five  or 
six,  they  must  follow  each  other  in  a  very  natural 
order,  or  the  average  hearer  will  not  easily  retain 
them  in  mind.  Accordingly,  judicious  and  skilful 
preachers  seldom  have  more  than  four  heads  of 
discourse. 

We  are  thus  prepared  to  understand  why  it  is  that 
sermons  oftener  have  three  divisions  than  any  other 
number.  This  is  a  fact  long  observed,  and  made 
the  subject  of  small  wit  —  "three  heads,  like  a  ser- 
mon. "^  No  doubt  many  preachers  have  tried  to 
make  out  three  divisions,  even  where  nothing  called 
for  it,  simply  from  habit,  or  from  blindly  following 
a  custom.  But  the  custom  itself  must  have  had 
some  natural  origin.  Now  a  principal  reason  for  it 
is  seen  from  the  considerations  stated  above;  three 
divisions  will  give  a  goodly  variety,  without  dis- 
tracting attention,  or  burdening  the  memory.  And 
in  many  directions  we  meet  with  similar  or  analo- 
gous facts.  Thus  one  of  the  commonest  schemes  of 
discourse  will  naturally  be,  What.?     Why?     What 

1  Otto,  Prak.  Theol.  s.  355. 

2  Coquerel,  p.  149,  quotes  ridicule  of  it  by  La  Bruy^re,  in  the  reign 
of  Louis  XIV. 


THE   SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON.    287 

then?  i.e.y  explain,  prove,  apply.  A  syllogism,  when 
fully  stated,  furnishes  three  propositions.  There 
cannot  be  a  climax  without  at  least  three  steps. 
Three  gives  the  idea  of  completeness,  — beginning, 
middle,  end.  When  men  start  in  a  race,  the  signal 
is  always,  "One,  two,  three,"  neither  more  nor 
less.  The  Scriptures  often  use  a  threefold  repe- 
tition as  the  most  emphatic  and  impressive;  Holy, 
holy,  holy.  Ask,  seek,  knock,  etc.  Often  logi- 
cal and  rhetorical  reasons  combine  to  fix  three  as 
the  number.  Thus,  The  resurrection  of  the  body 
is  (i)  possible,  (2)  probable,  (3)  certain.  To  carry 
religion  into  daily  life  is  (i)  possible,  (2)  desirable, 
(3)  obligatory.  Piety  is  for  every  young  man  (i)  a 
thing  to  be  respected,  (2)  a  thing  to  be  desired, 
(3)  a  thing  to  be  sought.^  Phelps ^  thinks  that  the 
threefold  division  was  due  (as  in  part  no  doubt  it 
was)  to  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  mediaeval  preachers 
to  honor  the  Trinity.  These  considerations  go  to 
show  that  it  is  not  accidental,  and  not  strange,  that 
elaborate  discourses  so  often  have  three  divisions. 
The  fact  that  this  is  the  commonest  number  may 
incline  us  to  avoid  it,  unless  required  by  the  natural 
arrangement  of  the  subject ;  but  when  it  is  so  re- 
quired, as  must  very  frequently  be  the  case,  let  us 
employ  it  without  hesitation.  In  general,  then, 
one  should  make  the  most  natural  division,  consid- 
ering the  subject  and  the  practical  design  of  the  dis- 
course, but  not  often  allowing  the  number  of  heads 
to  exceed  four.  That  in  so  doing  the  number  most 
frequently  occurring  will  be  three,  and  next  to  that 
two,  is  what  he  may  expect. 

1  So  Cicero,  in  the  oration  for  the  Manilian  Law,  argues,  "  You 
must  choose  a  general ;  you  must  choose  an  able  general ;  you  must 
choose  Cneius  Pompeius."     Hoppin,  p.  386. 

^  Theory  of  Preaching,  p.  382  f. 


288     THE    SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON. 

(c)  The  character  of  the  divisions  must  be  deter- 
mined by  their  relation  to  the  subject  proposed  and 
to  each  other.  As  to  the  former,  it  is  obvious  that 
no  one  division  should  be  coextensive  with  the  sub- 
ject; and  yet  inexperienced  sermonizers  sometimes 
unconsciously  have  it  so.  More  important  is  the 
inquiry,  whether  the  divisions  should  exhaust  the 
subject.  This  depends  upon  what  we  mean  by 
the  subject.  The  general  subject  treated  will  very 
seldom  be  exhaustively  divided  in  a  sermon;  but 
the  view  of  it  proposed  in  the  discourse  ought  to  be 
exhausted  by  the  divisions.  That  is  to  say,  they 
ought  to  exhaust  the  proposition,  or,  we  might  say, 
the  subject  proposed.  Yet  even  in  this  narrower 
sense,  the  oratorical  division  and  subdivision  of  a 
subject  will  not  commonly  exhaust  it  as  a  logical 
analysis  would  do.  The  latter  must  rigorously  set 
forth  "  all  and  singular  "  the  contents  of  the  proposi- 
tion. The  former  requires  that  its  divisions  shall 
with  a  certain  general  completeness  cover  the  whole 
ground  of  the  proposition,  so  as  to  make  the  dis- 
course a  structure,  but  does  not  always  demand  scien- 
tific accuracy  in  that  respect ;  and  as  to  subdivisions, 
it  is  very  easy  to  extend  analysis  beyond  what  con- 
duces to  practical  effect  in  speaking.  Barrow,  whose 
sermons  are  remarkable  specimens  of  completeness 
in  treating  the  subject  proposed,  whom  Charles  II. 
called  "an  unfair  preacher,  because  he  exhausted 
every  subject,  and  left  nothing  for  others  to  say  after 
him,"  has  sometimes  carried  his  analytical  discus- 
sion so  far  as  to  make  it  wearisome  to  any  ordinary 
congregation.  The  complete  logical  analysis  of  a 
subject,  dividing  and  subdividing,  will  sometimes 
be  useful  as  a  part  of  the  preparation  for  preaching 
on  it;  but  the  oratorical  division  is  distinct  from 


THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OF  A  SERMON.  289 

this,  and  often  very  different,  especially  as  to  sub- 
divisions.^ 

As  regards  the  relation  of  the  divisions  to  each 
other,  they  must  be  distiiict  and  symmetrical.  It  is 
not  uncommon  for  unpractised  speakers  to  have  one 
division  that  really  includes  another, 2  and  very  com- 
mon to  see  one  that  includes  some  part  of  what  also 
comes  under  another.  We  are  sometimes  greatly 
tempted,  in  treating  one  branch  of  a  subject,  to  go 
on  with  some  closely  related  matter  which  yet  prop- 
erly belongs  to  another  branch.  The  incongruity  is 
not  always  obvious,  and  requires  attention.  Some- 
times, in  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  decide  where  such  or 
such  an  idea  more  properly  belongs ;  but  it  must  be 
confined  to  one  head,  or  fairly  divided  between  the 
two,  so  that,  in  whatever  way,  the  heads  shall  be 
kept  distinct.  Furthermore,  ideas  are  frequently  set 
forth  as  distinct  divisions  which  are  not  sufficiently 
distinct  to  be  divided  at  all ;  and  ideas  which  are  dis- 
tinct, will  be  so  stated  as  to  glide  into  each  other, 
without  any  clear  line  of  demarcation.  "Words  the 
most  different  do  not  always  convey  essentially 
different  ideas,  as  in  this  division :  *  It  is  charac- 
teristic of  Christian  faith,  that  it  excites,  guides^ 
supports.'  To  prove  successively  that  a  thing  is 
contrary  to  good  sense  and  contrary  to  our  own 
interests,  is  to  condemn  ourselves  to  be  in  presence 
of  nothing  after  finishing  the  first  part."^     Besides 

1  The  author  once  received,  as  a  homiletical  exercise,  the  sketch 
of  a  sermon  containing  four  divisions,  but  with  subdivisions  and  divi- 
sions of  these  again  and  again,  till  the  whole  numbered  more  than  a 
hundred  and  twenty.  The  analysis  was  almost  faultless,  but  it  would 
have  made  an  intolerable  sermon. 

2  Thus  Cicero  (De  Inventione,  I,  23)  points  out  how  improper  it 
would  be  to  undertake  to  show  that  from  the  opposite  party's  cupid- 
ity and  audacity  and  avarice,  rriany  ills  had  befallen  the  state;  be- 
cause avarice  is  really  one  kind  of  cupidity. 

*  Vinet,  p.  282. 

19 


290    THE   SEVERAL  PARTS   OF   A   SERMON. 

being  distinct,  the  divisions  should  be  symmetrical. 
It  is  little  to  say  that  they  must  not  be  incongruous, 
though  preachers  of  some  ability  do  at  times  throw 
together  matters  which  have  as  little  congruity  as 
the  human  head,  a  horse's  neck,  a  body  composed  of 
parts  brought  from  all  directions  and  covered  with 
many  kinds  of  feathers,  and  the  whole  ending  in  a 
fish's  tail  —  according  to  the  well-known  warning  of 
Horace.^  But  the  important  precept  is,  that  the 
divisions  must  all  sustain  the  same  kind  of  relation 
to  the  subject  proposed.  Nothing  is  more  common, 
among  the  faults  of  inexperienced  preachers,  than  to 
see  three  divisions,  one  of  which  is  not  coordinate 
with  the  other  two,  but  only  with  some  other  prop- 
osition of  which  those  two  are  really  subdivisions; 
some  of  the  divisions  are  branches  of  the  tree,  and 
others  are  but  branches  of  branches.  This  fault 
should  be  carefully  guarded  against.  In  some  re- 
spects, the  idea  of  symmetry  is  often  pushed  too 
far.  Of  course  the  subdivisions  of  any  one  division 
should  all  sustain  to  it  the  same  relation.  But  pains 
are  often  taken  to  give  each  division  the  same  num- 
ber of  subdivisions,  in  order  to  make  the  plan  sym- 
metrical. Even  when  this  is  natural,  it  is  very  apt 
to  appear  artificial,  particularly  if  the  number  of  di- 
visions and  subdivisions  be  considerable;  and  when 
it  is  really  artificial,  the  effect  is  not  good.  Pascal 
compares  such  matters  inserted  merely  for  the  sake 
of  symmetry  to  false  windows  in  a  building,  a  poor 
attempt  to  hide  internal  lack  of  symmetry,  and  which 
offend  as  soon  as  we  know  what  they  are.  Another 
mistaken  notion  of  symmetry  requires  that  each 
division  and  sometimes  even  each  subdivision  should 
be  discussed  at  about  the  same  length.  When  nat- 
ural, this  is  pleasing.     But  it  will  not  often  be  nat- 

1  Ars  Poetica,  i. 


THE   SEVERAL   PARTS    OF   A   SERMON.     291 

ural.  A  mere  external  symmetry  is  far  less  important 
than  proportion  to  the  internal  relation  of  the  topics, 
and  to  the  specific  design  of  the  discourse.  ^ 

The  different  principles  on  which  subjects  may  be 
divided  are  very  numerous,  and  no  brief  discussion 
or  enumeration  of  them  would  be  of  much  utility. ^ 
One  may  learn  much  as  to  the  practical  management 
of  division,  from  the  careful  analysis  of  published 
sermons.  The  inexperienced  preacher  will  find  great 
advantage  in  having  his  plans  critically  examined 
by  an  instructor,  or  by  some  judicious  friend.  In 
this  matter  a  man  will  soon  learn  more  from  having 
pointed  out  to  him  the  faults  which  he  himself  has 
committed  than  it  is  possible  to  teach  in  general 
terms.  The  study  of  Logic,  in  any  really  good 
treatise,  will  also  be  of  great  service,  in  this  as  in 
many  other  respects. 

(d)  The  order  of  the  divisions  will  be  controlled 
not  merely  by  logical,  but  also  by  practical  consider- 
ations. Even  where  instruction  and  conviction  are 
especially  aimed  at,  there  is  always  in  preaching  a 
practical  effect  proposed,  and  usually  instruction 
and  conviction  are  quite  subordinate  to  the  object  of 
impressing  the  feelings  and  determining  the  will. 
As  to  instruction,  it  is  obviously  proper  that  those 
divisions  should  precede,  which  will  help  to  under- 
stand the  succeeding  ones ;  and  it  is  commonly  con- 
venient that  negative  considerations  should  precede 
the  positive.  So  far  as  conviction  is  concerned,  a 
sermon  should  arrange  arguments  according  to  the 
general  principles  which  regulate  the  order  of  argu- 

1  Comp.  above,  at  the  close  of  chap.  i.  The  peculiarities,  as  to 
divisions,  of  subject-sermons,  text-sermons,  and  expository  sermons, 
will  be  discussed  below  in  chap.  iii. 

2  Some  good  remarks  may  be  found  in  Hoppin,  p.  386 ;  Kidder, 
p.  201 ;  Phelps,  p.  386  flf.  Comp.  below  on  subject-sermons,  chap,  iil 
§1. 


292     THE   SEVERAL   PARTS    OF   A   SERMON. 

merits,  and  which  apply  here  not  less  than  in  the 
essay  or  treatise.^  And  in  respect  to  practical  effect, 
we  must  endeavor  clearly  to  discern  the  particular 
end  proposed,  and  then  must  consider  what  selection 
and  arrangement  of  topics  will  be  most  likely,  by 
kindling  the  imagination  and  warming  the  passions, 
to  induce  the  hearers  to  resolve  and  to  act  as  the 
truth  requires.  For  this  purpose  the  abstract  must 
precede  the  concrete,  the  general  precede  the  specific 
or  particular,  and  commonly  instruction  and  convic- 
tion must  precede  appeal.  The  appeal,  however, 
may  either  come  in  mass  after  the  whole  body  of 
instruction  and  argument,  or  it  may  immediately  fol- 
low each  leading  thought  as  presented.  This  last 
course,  to  apply  as  we  go,  has  sometimes  consider- 
able advantages.  The  successive  waves  of  emotion 
may  thus  rise  higher  and  higher  to  the  end.  And 
besides,  while  thought  produces  emotion,  it  is  also 
true  that  emotion  reacts  upon  and  quickens  thought, 
so  that  the  impressive  application  of  one  division 
may  secure  for  the  next  a  closer  attention.  *  Yet  the 
interest  must  steadily  grow  as  we  advance,  or  the  ef- 
fect will  be  bad ;  and  where  we  cannot  feel  sure  that 
it  will  thus  grow,  point  by  point,  then  application 
had  better  be  postponed  till  towards  the  close.  ^ 

The  preacher  who  repeats  a  sermon  ought  to  con- 
sider whether  he  cannot  advantageously  rearrange  it, 
or  at  any  rate,  improve  the  plan. 

{e)  The  statement  of  the  divisions  and  subdivisions, 
like  that  of  the  proposition,  ought  to  be  exact,  con- 
cise, and,  as  far  as  possible,  suggestive  and  attrac- 
tive. Without  straining  after  effect,  one  may  often 
state  a  division  in  terms  so  brief  and  striking  that 
the  hearer's  attention  will  be  at  once  awakened.     It 

'  See  on  order  of  arguments,  Part  I.  chap,  vii.,  §  6. 
^  Comp.  on  Application,  Part  I.  chap.  ix. 


THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OF  A  SERMON.  293 

IS  well  that  the  several  divisions  (and  so  with  the 
several  subdivisions  of  each)  should  be  stated  in 
similar  forms  of  expression,  where  this  can  be  done 
without  artificiality.  Such  similarity  of  statement 
brings  out  the  symmetry  of  the  divisions,  rendering 
them  clearer  and  also  more  pleasing.  Some  German 
preachers  occasionally  throw  their  divisions  into 
metre  and  rhyme, ^  or  adopt  for  the  purpose  some 
couplet  or  stanza  from  a  familiar  hymn. 

(/)  Shall  the  divisions  be  announced  beforehand? 
This  was  once  almost  universal,  and  is  still  the  regu- 
lar practice  of  many  preachers.  At  one  time  in  some 
parts  of  Germany,  the  plan  of  the  sermon  was  printed, 
and  either  published  in  the  newspaper  of  the  previous 
week,  or  handed  in  slips  to  the  congregation  as  they 
entered  the  church.^  To  make  a  minute  announce- 
ment of  divisions  and  subdivisions,  and  repeatedly 
recall  them  in  passing,  is  very  appropriate  when  lec- 
turing to  a  class  on  some  difficult  subject,  where  the 
object  is  not  persuasion,  but  only  instruction  and  con- 
viction. But  in  preaching,  rightly  regarded,  these 
are  commonly  subordinate  to  persuasion.  Now  three 
cases  may  be  noted,  in  which  it  is  desirable  to  an- 
nounce the  divisions  at  the  outset.  First,  when  the 
train  of  thought  is  difficult,  and  the  announcement 
may  aid  in  following  it.  Sometimes  this  would  but 
increase  the  difficulty,  the  hearer  finding  it  easier  to 
comprehend  each  division  by  itself,  as  it  is  presented. 
But  in  other  cases  the  divisions  when  placed  side  by 

1  Thus  Karl  von  Gerok  (quoted  in  Stiebritz,  Zur  Geschichte  der 
Predigt  u.  s.  w.,  II.  s.  616)  on  the  Wedding  at  Cana  (John  ii.  i-ii) : 

Wohl  einem  Haus  wo  Jesus  Christ 

Allein  das  All  in  AUem  ist  I 

(i)  Da  hbrt  die  Liebe  nimnier  auf ; 

(2)  Da  hat  das  Tagwerk  miintern  Lauf; 

(3)  Da  wird  die  Freude  fromm  und  rein} 

(4)  Das  Leid  nicht  ohne  Trostung  sein. 

*  Hagenbach,  Horn.  s.  123. 


294    THE   SEVERAL   PARTS    OF   A   SERMON. 

side  will  throw  light  on  each  other.  Secondly,  when 
it  is  particularly  desirable  that  not  merely  the  practical 
impression  should  be  permanent,  but  that  the  succes- 
sive steps  in  the  exposition  or  argument  should  be 
remembered.  Thirdly,  when  we  judge  that  the  an- 
nouncement would  awaken  interest  and  attention, 
rather  than  abate  them ;  and  here  every  case  must 
be  decided  upon  its  own  merits.^  Unless  one  of  these 
three  conditions  exist,  no  previous  announcement 
should  be  made.  It  must  be  remembered  that  there 
are  many  different  methods  of  announcing,  begin- 
ning with  the  formal  statement  of  numbered  divisions 
(and  sometimes  of  subdivisions  also),  and  extending 
through  numerous  gradations  to  the  perfectly  informal, 
and  perhaps  very  slight  mention  of  the  divisions  as  the 
points  it  is  proposed  to  consider.  Between  these  lim- 
its there  may  be  devised  a  great  variety  of  methods, 
by  the  exercise  of  power  of  invention,  and  of  judg- 
ment and  good  taste.  Shedd  thinks  ^  that,  as  a 
general  thing,  recapitulation  is  better  than  pre-an- 
nouncement,  as  being  more  intelligible,  more  impress- 
ive, and  more  easily  remembered.  In  many  cases, 
this  is  true.  In  many  others,  the  pre-announcement 
is  best.     Sometimes,  it  is  even  well  to  employ  both. 

To  announce  at  the  outset  the  subdivisions  also, 
would  be  scarcely  ever  desirable,  and  that  only  in  very 
peculiar  cases,  where  the  train  of  thought  was  in  it- 
self very  important.  It  is,  however,  more  frequently 
proper,  after  stating  a  particular  division,  then  to 
announce  its  subdivisions,  or  rather  to  mention  them 
in  an  easy  and  informal  way. 

(4)  The  transitions  from  one  part  of  a  discourse  to 
the  next  are  most  felicitous  when  least  noticeable. 
The  ideal  of  excellence  would  be  that  the  parts  should 
fit  perfectly  together,  "  like  well-cut  stones,  needing 

1  Comp.  Phelps,  pp.  411-414,  and  Brooks,  p.  177.       2  Horn.  p.  19JS. 


THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OF  A  SERMON.  295 

no  cement,"  to  use  Cicero's  image,  or  that  each 
should  grow  out  of  the  preceding,  by  a  process  of 
natural  development.  This  ideal  can  seldom  be 
realized;  but  in  all  cases  transition  will  be  easy  in 
proportion  as  the  subject  proposed  has  been  thor- 
oughly studied,  and  the  thoughts  to  be  presented 
have  been  well  arranged.  No  good  transition  can 
be  made  between  topics  that  have  not  a  real  and 
natural  relation,  such  as  to  make  it  appropriate  that 
they  should  stand  in  immediate  succession.  When 
therefore  we  find  the  transition  difficult,  it  is  well  to 
inquire  whether  the  arrangement  is  not  defective. 
Often,  indeed,  the  difficulty  arises  from  the  fact  that 
we  are  attempting  to  work  in  some  idea  or  passage 
which  has  no  natural  place  in  the  train  of  thought. 
Buffon  has  remarked,  "  Those  who  fear  to  lose  iso- 
lated thoughts,  and  who  write  detached  passages  at 
different  times,  never  combine  them  without  forced 
transitions."  ^  And  the  difficulty  is  even  greater  with 
scraps  gathered  from  reading.  These  should  be 
introduced  only  when  they  can  be  thoroughly  in- 
corporated into  the  discourse.  Otherwise,  no  matter 
how  sensible,  striking,  or  pleasing,  it  would  be  better 
to  omit  them ;  if  really  so  good,  they  will  soon  find 
their  place  somewhere  else.  A  discourse  is  not  a  mere 
conglomeration  or  accretion  of  foreign  matters.  From 
whatever  source  its  materials  may  have  been  derived, 
they  must  be  made  to  unite  and  grow  together.  Like 
sap  in  the  plant  or  blood  in  the  body,  the  vital 
current  of  thought  must  flow  through  the  whole  dis- 
course, giving  it  animation,  flexibihty,  strength. 

Still,  it  will  frequently  happen  that  the  practical 
design  of  a  sermon,  or  the  exigencies  of  preparation, 
will  require  us  to  bring  together  thoughts  between 

1  Quoted  by  Vinet,  p.  285.  See  also  Skinner,  Discussions  in 
Theol.  p.  168. 


296    THE   SEVERAL   PARTS   OF   A   SERMON. 

which  there  is  not  a  perfect  fit,  or  a  spontaneous  vital 
connection.  It  may  then  be  necessary  to  interpose 
some  third  idea,  related  to  both,  and  forming  an  easy 
transition.^  Such  an  idea  must  not  have  any  separ- 
ate prominence,  nor  in  fact  attract  to  itself  any  atten- 
tion from  the  persons  addressed,  though  a  critical 
observer  would  perceive  that  it  is  appropriate  and 
properly  introduced.  In  most  cases  the  transition  can 
be  effected  by  a  single  brief  sentence.  To  manage 
this  with  simplicity,  grace,  and  variety,  is  a  task  of 
sorne  delicacy,  but  due  attention  and  practice  will 
enable  any  one  to  perform  it  with  tolerable  success. 
One  of  the  most  distinguished  preachers  of  America  ^ 
is  known  to  have  remarked,  that  the  transitions,  the 
articulations,  of  a  discourse,  give  the  highest  proof 
of  oratorical  skill.  If  under  articulation  we  comprise 
the  adjustment  of  successive  thoughts  to  each  other, 
this  would  naturally  include  arrangement,  and  taken 
with  this  breadth  of  meaning,  the  remark  is  un- 
questionably correct. 

But  whether  the  transition  be  in  itself  mediate  or 
immediate,  it  is  often  desirable  to  employ  some  form 
of  expression  which,  in  conjunction  with  the  natural 
change  of  tone  and  manner,  shall  cause  the  hearer  to 
observe  that  we  are  here  passing  to  another  thought. 
This  is  sometimes  done  by  numbering  the  divisions 
and  subdivisions,  and  then  introducing  each  by  a 
mention  of  the  number,  which  besides  the  formal 
statement,  can  be  made  in  a  variety  of  informal  ways. 
And  without  numbering,  or  without  stating  the  num- 
bers, we  may  use  any  of  those  numerous  expressions 
which  indicate  progress  from  point  to  point.  Among 
the  most  common  are  again^  in  addition,  besides, 
furthermore,  still  further,  moreover,  another  point,  in 
the  7text  place,  and  not  only  this,  but,  etc.,  on  the  other 

1  Comp.  Vinet,  p.  317.  ^  jhe  late  Richard  Fuller. 


THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OF  A  SERMON.  297 

ha7tdy  once  more,  finally,  etc.^  But  let  not  the  in- 
experienced preacher  imagine  that  there  are  any  set 
phrases  which  propriety  requires  him  to  adopt.  Let 
him  notice  what  relation  exists  between  the  foregoing 
and  following  thoughts,  and  indicate  the  transition  by 
any  appropriate  and  simple  expression,  without  hunt- 
ing after  novelty,  and  without  neglecting  variety. 

If  the  sermon  is  unusually  long,  the  transition  to 
one  of  its  later  divisions  may  in  some  simple  and 
quiet  way  acknowledge  the  fact,  perhaps  slightly 
apologize  for  it;  if  any  particular  portion,  from  its 
difficulty  or  its  importance,  requires  special  attention, 
this  also  may  be  indicated  in  the  transition ;  and  in 
rare  cases  a  word  may  be  thrown  in  to  arouse  flagging 
attention.^  The  propriety  of  all  such  passing  re- 
marks, and  the  method  of  making  them,  must  be 
determined  by  good  sense  and  good  taste.  If  not 
well  managed,  they  are  much  worse  than  nothing. 

As  to  this  whole  matter  of  the  plan  of  discourse, 
we  may  rejoice  that  in  the  present  age,  and  especially 
in  our  country,  there  is  no  established  and  dominant 
custom,  but  a  good  degree  of  freedom.  The  preacher, 
particularly  in  his  youth,  had  better  not  make  haste 
to  conclude  that  he  is  superior  to  general  experience, 
but  should  study  and  practise  different  methods,  fol- 
lowing mainly  those  which  he  finds  best  suited  to  his 
powers,  but  frequently  exercising  himself  in  others ; 
thus  he  will  let  no  one  method  become  a  necessity  to 
him,  but  will  broaden  and  vary  his  cultivation,  and 
adapt  himself  to  differences  of  taste  among  his  hear- 
ers. On  the  other  hand  he  need  not  be  always 
following  the  fashions  of  his  time,  but,  taking  due  ac- 
count of  the  nature  and  design  of  pulpit  discourse, 
should  give  free  scope  to  his  individuality,  and  some- 
times strike  out  methods  of  his  own,  observing  how 
1  Comp.  Ripley,  Sac.  Rhet.  p.  102.  2  Jj,,^  p.  103. 


298    THE   SEVERAL  PARTS   OF   A   SERMON. 

they  affect  him  and  his  hearers.  He  should  be 
neither  soHcitous  to  appear  independent  and  original, 
nor  afraid  to  try  experiments,  under  the  control  of 
good  taste  and  devout  feeling.^ 


§  3.     THE  CONCLUSION. 

Preachers  seldom  neglect  to  prepare  some  intro- 
duction to  a  sermon,  but  very  often  neglect  the  con- 
clusion; and  yet  the  latter  is  even  more  important 
than  the  former.  John  Bright,  who  was  one  of  the 
foremost  political  orators  of  the  present  age,  stated 
that  however  little  preparation  he  may  have  made  for 
the  rest  of  a  speech,  he  always  carefully  prepared  the 
conclusion.  Lord  Brougham  said  that  the  conclusion 
to  his  celebrated  speech  before  the  House  of  Lords 
in  defence  of  Queen  Caroline  was  composed  twenty 
times  over,  at  least.  The  peroration  of  Burke's  first 
speech  at  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings  was  worked 
over  sixteen  times.^  The  great  orators  of  Greece 
and  Rome  paid  much  attention  to  their  perorations, 
seeming  to  feel  that  this  was  the  final  struggle  which 
must  decide  the  conflict,  and  gathering  up  all  their 
powers  for  one  supreme  effort.  But  how  often  we 
find  it  otherwise,  especially  on  the  part  of  preachers 
who  extemporize.  The  beginning  and  earlier  pro- 
gress of  the  sermon  show  good  preparation,  and  do 
well.  But  towards  the  close  the  preacher  no  longer 
knows  the  way;  here  he  wanders  with  a  bewildered 
look,  there  he  struggles  and  flounders.  Another,  feel- 
ing excited  at  the  close,  launches  into  general  ex- 
hortation, and  proceeding  till  body  and  mind  are 
exhausted,  ends  with  what  is  scattering,  feeble,  flat. 

1  Upon  the  different  methods  of  constructing  subject-sermons, 
text-sermons,  and  expository  sermons,  see  below,  chap.  iii. 

2  See  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Warren  Hastings ;  and  Phelps,  p.  496. 


THE   SEVERAL  PARTS   OF   A   SERMON.     299 

The  conclusion  ought  to  have  moved  like  a  river, 
growing  in  volume  and  power,  but  instead  of  that, 
the  discourse  loses  itself  in  some  great  marsh,  or 
ends  like  the  emptying  of  a  pitcher,  with  a  few  poor 
drops  and  dregs. 

Let  us  lay  down  the  rule,  then,  that  the  conclu- 
sion, or  at  least  some  conclusion,  should  be  care- 
fully prepared.  If  it  is  to  comprise  any  impassioned 
personal  appeal,  we  shall  often  find  occasion  to  mod- 
ify it  in  delivery,  according  to  the  state  of  feeling 
which  has  then  been  reached  by  ourselves  and  the 
hearers.  But  one  can  usually  determine,  when  pre- 
paring, precisely  the  thoughts  with  which  the  sermon 
ought  to  conclude,  though  he  may  leave  the  mode 
of  stating  them  to  be  controlled  by  the  feelings  of 
the  moment.  He  ought  in  every  case  to  have  ready, 
and  well  prepared,  something  that  will  make  an  ap- 
propriate and  effective  conclusion,  even  though  leav- 
ing himself  free,  if  the  moment  should  so  prompt,  to 
strike  in  a  different  direction,  or  rise  to  a  higher  level. 
Where  the  subject  will  naturally  lead  to  passionate 
exhortation,  we  can  almost  always  foresee  a  certain 
range  within  which  such  exhortation  must  be  re- 
stricted, if  it  is  to  be  kept  in  relation  to  the  subject, 
and  can  commonly  fix  some  point  beyond,  towards 
which  this  emotional  expatiation  shall  tend,  and 
where  we  may  close  with  some  comprehensive  state- 
ment or  final  appeal.  The  difficulty  thus  encoun- 
tered as  to  the  conclusion  is  only  a  higher  degree 
of  that  which  everywhere  presents  itself  in  the  best 
forms  of  speaking,  and  which  we  must  learn  to  over- 
come, namely,  how  shall  we  combine  the  most  thor- 
ough possible  preparation  with  the  largest  liberty 
in  delivery?^ 

1  Comp.  on  the  different  methods  of  preparation  and  delivery, 
Part  IV.  chap.  L 


300    THE   SEVERAL  PARTS   OF   A   SERMON. 

One  element  in  the  conclusion  of  a  sermon  will 
often  be  recapitulation.  If  the  discourse  has  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  careful  explanation  or  labored  argu- 
ment, and  if  it  is  important  that  its  several  divisions 
should  be  remembered,  and  doubtful  whether  they 
will  be,  then  the  divisions,  and  occasionally  even 
certain  subdivisions,  may  be  distinctly  re-stated.  But 
this  must  be  so  managed,  to  use  a  phrase  of  Cicero's, 
*'  that  the  recollection  may  be  revived,  not  the  speech 
repeated."  Labored  recapitulation  is  as  unnecessary 
as  it  is  tedious.  Though  perhaps  anxious  at  the 
moment  to  enlarge  anew  upon  some  favorite  point, 
we  must  confine  recapitulation  to  its  proper  office. 
In  most  sermons,  however,  we  do  not  care  to  repro- 
duce the  several  thoughts  and  fix  them  separately 
in  the  hearer's  mind,  but  rather  to  gather  them  all 
together,  and  concentrate  their  force  upon  one  final 
effort  of  conviction  or  persuasion.  In  such  cases  it 
is  not  well  to  make  any  formal  recapitulation,  but  in 
a  freer  way  to  recall  the  train  of  thought,  or  the 
principal  points  of  it,  sometimes  using  very  different 
forms  of  statement.  This  appears  to  be  what  Vinet 
would  call  rhum^,  as  distinct  from  recapitulation.^ 
For  properly  oratorical  purposes,  it  is  commonly 
much  to  be  preferred.  The  recapitulation,  or  the 
r^sum^y  especially  the  latter,  may  sometimes  form 
the  entire  conclusion ;  but  in  most  cases  it  only 
leads  to  the  conclusion  proper.  It  is  often  better, 
particularly  where  the  discourse  includes  many 
points,  to  give  some  recapitulation  before  reaching 
the  conclusion,  usually  when  passing  to  the  last 
division. 

The  conclusion  will,  for  the  most  part,  consist  of 
application.  This  term,  as  we  have  already  seen,  is 
popularly  used  to  embrace  a   variety  of  materials, 

1  Vinet,  p.  323. 


THE   SEVERAL  PARTS   OF  A  SERMON.    301 

including  application  proper,  suggestions  for  practi- 
cal guidance,  and  persuasive  appeal. 

As  application  is  often  made  elsewhere  than  in  the 
conclusion,  sometimes,  indeed,  forming  a  large  portion 
of  the  sermon,  enlarged  at  some  point  or  distributed 
throughout,  the  subject  was  properly  considered  un- 
der the  head  of  the  materials  of  sermons.^  Yet  it  is 
evident  that  the  application  concentrates  itself,  so  to 
speak,  in  the  conclusion.  This  concluding  applica- 
tion requires,  even  more  than  the  other  parts  of  the 
discourse,  that  the  preacher  should  have  strong  faith, 
warm  religious  experience,  intense  earnestness. 

But  it  is  quite  wrong  to  suppose,  as  some  preachers 
appear  to  do,  that  every  sermon  must  end  with  a  very 
pathetic  or  overwhelming  appeal.  It  is  not  unfre- 
quently  best  to  end  quietly,  yet  still  so  as  to  impress. 
And  whatever  the  subject  might  require,  let  a  man 
not  speak  in  an  emotional  manner  unless  he  really 
feels  it.  An  effort  to  work  oneself  up  into  feeling, 
because  it  is  desirable  at  this  point,  will  usually  fail; 
and  if  it  succeeds  as  to  the  preacher  himself,  will  be 
apt  to  make  anything  else  than  a  good  impression  on 
the  hearers.  If  an  impassioned  conclusion  was  pre- 
pared, and  the  speaker  now  finds  that  his  own  feel- 
ings and  those  of  the  audience  have  slowly  subsided 
till  there  is  no  good  prospect  of  exciting  them,  let 
him  omit  the  prepared  conclusion,  or  modify  its  tone 
so  as  to  attempt  nothing  but  what  can  be  achieved. 
Few  things  are  so  painful  or  so  injurious  as  the  reac- 
tion produced  by  passionate  words  which  are  not  felt 
by  the  hearers,  nor  even  by  the  speaker.  "  Do  not 
preach  the  corpse  of  an  appeal."  ^  And  let  it  never 
be  forgotten  that  we  must  not  aim  to  excite  emotion 
merely  for  its  own  sake,  as  if  that  were  the  end  in  view, 
but  to  make  it  a  means  of  determining  the  will  and 

1  Comp.  above,  Part  I.  chap.  ix.  2  phelps,  p.  576. 


302     THE   SEVERAL  PARTS    OF   A   SERMON. 

stimulating  to  corresponding  action.  Even  love  to 
God  will  not  subsist  as  a  mere  feeling. 

A  concluding  exhortation  ought,  as  a  rule,  to  be 
specific,  keeping  itself  in  relation  to  the  subject  which 
has  been  treated.  There  is  great  danger  that  a  fluent 
and  fervid  speaker  will  wander  into  mere  general  ap- 
peals, equally  appropriate  to  almost  any  other  sub- 
ject or  occasion.  This  may  be  sometimes  allowable, 
but  a  more  specific  exhortation  would  almost  always 
be  more  effective.  It  was  once  very  common,  among 
Baptists,  Methodists,  and  some  others,  for  a  sermon 
to  be  followed  by  an  exhortation  from  some  other 
minister,  or  from  some  private  Christian.  The  prac- 
tice is  now  generally  disused,  except  in  ''  protracted 
meetings,"  but  if  properly  managed,  may  be,  upon 
occasion,  quite  appropriate  and  really  useful.  It 
would  be  an  excellent  thing  to  startle  some  of  our 
congregations  out  of  their  decorous  dulness,  by  an 
unexpected  and  rousing  exhortation.  But  such  ad- 
dresses should  not  break  away  from  the  sermon,  nor 
lose  themselves  in  vague  generalities.  They  should 
in  general  carry  the  subject,  or  some  branch  of  it, 
farther  in  the  same  direction.  If  no  train  of  thought 
presents  itself  which  would  be  of  this  character,  then 
let  the  speaker  take  some  thought  which,  though  not 
included  in  the  sermon,  will  harmonize  with  it  in  gen- 
eral effect  —  so  that  the  whole  service  may  impel  the 
hearers  in  the  same  direction.  One  who  undertakes 
such  exhortation  ought  not  merely  to  feel  moved  to 
speak,  but  by  all  means  to  have  something  definite  in 
his  mind  which  he  wishes  to  say,  and  ought  especially 
to  beware  of  wearying  the  audience. 

When  the  sermon  has  been  one  of  solemn  warning, 
it  is  sometimes  well  in  concluding  to  speak  words  of 
comfort  and  encouragement  in  view  of  the  divine 
promises;  or  when  the  discourse  has   dealt  mostly 


THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OP^  A  SERMON.  303 

with  earnest  invitation,  it  might  be  best  for  the  con- 
clusion to  speak  frankly  of  the  difficulties  of  disciple- 
ship  to  Christ,  so  as  to  discourage  a  hasty  profession. 
The  preacher  must  judge  in  every  case,  whether  this 
combination  will  deepen  the  general  impression,  or 
whether  the  two  will  neutralize  each  other  in  the 
hearer's  mind,  and  leave  him  unaffected  by  either. 
It  may  be  added  that  warnings,  and  all  that  is  alarm- 
ing in  gospel  truth,  should  be  uttered  not  as  if  we  de- 
lighted in  denunciation,  but  with  especial  tenderness, 
showing  that  we  speak  in  the  faithfulness  of  love. 

The  length  of  the  conclusion,  like  that  of  the  intro- 
duction, is  dependent  on  circumstances,  and  no  rule 
can  be  laid  down.  But  there  is  great  danger  of 
making  it  too  long,  especially  in  hortatory  appeals. 
The  feeling  of  the  speaker  inclines  him  to  continue, 
but  the  feelings  of  the  hearers  cannot  be  long  kept  up 
to  a  high  point  If  the  sermon  has  been  long,  the 
conclusion  should  certainly  be  brief,  save  in  very 
peculiar  cases.  Sometimes  the  close  of  the  last  divi- 
sion really  brings  the  whole  train  of  thought  to  an  end, 
and  gives  it  a  practical  turn;  any  separate  conclu- 
sion is  then  unnecessary,  and  commonly  undesirable. 
Sometimes  an  abrupt  conclusion  is  very  effective, 
when  well  managed,  with  good  taste  and  unaffected 
solemnity.  Sometimes  the  preacher  will  be  over- 
come by  emotion,  and  then  tearful  silence  will  be 
more  powerful  than  speech.  "  Excessive  length  is  a 
common  fault  of  the  conclusion  of  extemporaneous 
preachers  and  writers ;  in  fact,  of  all  who  do  not  gov- 
ern themselves  both  in  the  preparation  and  delivery 
of  sermons  by  well-defined  plans.  New  thoughts 
occur  to  them,  and  they  are  hitched  on  to  what  has 
gone  before.  What  is  worse,  sometimes  the  preacher 
becomes  conscious  that  he  has  failed  to  accomplish 
the  object  of  his  discourse,  or  to  awaken  the  degree 


304  THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OF  A  SERMON. 

of  interest  he  ought  to  have  excited,  and  he  struggles 
on  in  the  vain  endeavor  to  compensate  the  fault,  until 
at  last  he  is  forced  to  terminate  further  from  his  object 
than  when  his  conclusion  began."  ^  Most  of  all  is  it 
unwise  to  give  indication  that  one  is  about  to  con- 
clude, and  then  start  again,  or  keep  dragging  on. 

The  general  character  of  the  conclusion  ought 
to  be  determined  before  the  detailed  composition 
(whether  written  or  unwritten)  of  the  discourse  is 
begun.  Then  the  development  of  the  details  may 
be  suitably  limited  and  directed  by  the  use  which  it 
is  proposed  to  make  of  the  whole  in  concluding.  If 
the  other  materials  have  been  provided  and  arranged, 
and  no  conclusion  has  yet  suggested  itself — a  thing 
which  will  not  often  happen  —  we  may  look  again 
over  the  train  of  thought  drawn  out,  asking  ourselves 
distinctly  the  question  what  will  be  the  most  suitable 
conclusion  to  all  this.  Or  perhaps  a  renewed  exami- 
nation of  the  text,  or  of  its  connection,  or  of  parallel 
passages,  will  furnish  something  suitable.  The  prob- 
lem is  not  to  find  some  conclusion,  but  that  which 
will  be  most  appropriate  and  effective.  It  is  plain 
that  the  conclusion  cannot  be  composed  in  detail,  till 
we  reach  it  in  composing  the  discourse.  In  fact,  some 
better  conclusion  than  was  originally  contemplated 
may  have  presented  itself  in  the  course  of  composi- 
tion, which  it  is  proper  to  substitute.  And  the  same 
thing  may  happen  in  the  course  of  delivery.  The 
great  requisite  is,  that  the  body  of  the  discourse  and 
the  conclusion  shall  each  be  adapted  to  the  other; 
and  this  may  be  accomplished  by  fixing  the  general 
contents  and  design  of  the  conclusion  when  laying 
out  the  plan  of  the  discourse ;  and  then  allowing  the 
style  and  tone  of  the  conclusion  to  be  modified,  or  its 
very  character  changed,  in  any  way  that  may  have 

1  Kidder,  pp.  229,  230. 


THE  SEVERAL  PARTS  OF  A  SERMON.  305 

been  suggested  in  the  progress  of  composition  or 
of  delivery. 

The  final  words  of  the  conclusion  may  sometimes 
consist  of  a  comprehensive  and  impressive  restate- 
ment of  the  subject  which  has  been  discussed.  "  It 
is  very  effective  when,  in  our  final  appeal,  we  can 
strongly  and  vividly  reproduce  the  leading  idea  of 
the  whole  discourse.  It  has  a  very  great  effect  upon 
our  hearers,  after  so  many  solid  proofs  and  so  many 
skilful  strokes  of  oratory  have  been  devoted  to  it,  to 
see  the  great  leading  truth,  the  parent  idea,  appear 
once  more  at  this  crowning  moment  in  all  the  force 
of  its  beautiful  simplicity,  in  all  the  strength  of  its 
unity."  ^  Or  the  text  itself  may  be  the  last  words. 
When  the  discourse  has  been  developed  out  of  the 
text,  and  has  exhibited  all  its  wealth  of  meaning, 
then  the  emphatic  repetition  of  the  text  in  closing 
will  impressively  sum  up  all  that  has  been  said.  Or 
we  may  end  with  another  passage  of  Scripture,  or 
with  part  of  a  hymn,  or  with  an  invocation  of  the 
divine  blessing.  This  last  is  sometimes  natural  and 
impressive,  but  should  never  become  a  regular  form. 
Very  often,  however,  the  general  contents  or  design 
of  the  conclusion  will  require  that  we  close  with  some 
particular  thought.  The  last  sentence,  of  whatever 
it  may  consist,  ought  to  be  appropriate  and  impress- 
ive, but  its  style  ought  not  to  be  elaborate  and  am- 
bitious. It  is  a  very  solemn  moment.  Do  not  be 
thinking  of  your  reputation,  but  of  your  responsibility, 
and  of  your  hearers*  salvation.^ 

1  Potter,  p.  228. 

2  Besides  Shedd,  already  referred  to,  the  Conclusion  is  treated  at 
unusual  length  and  in  an  instructive  manner  by  Hoppin,  pp.  427-443 ; 
and  by  Phelps,  pp.  454-575,  though  his  treatment  includes  the  whole 
of  Application. 


306       DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF  SERMONS. 
CHAPTER  III. 

DIFFERENT  SPECIES   OF  SERMONS. 

§  I.  Subject-Sermons.  §  2.  Text-Sermons. 

§  3.  Expository  Sermons. 

VARIOUS  elaborate  and  unsuccessful  attempts 
have  been  made  to  classify  sermons.^  From 
the  nature  of  the  case  no  exact  or  scientific  classifi- 
cation is  possible ;  the  various  kinds  will  overlap  and 
mingle  in  every  conceivable  way.  Thus  if  sermons 
be  distinguished  into  doctrinal  and  practical,  it  is 
evident  that  the  doctrine  should  have  a  practical 
application,  and  the  practical  application  a  doctrinal 
basis;  if  they  be  divided  ^  into  explanatory,  illustra- 
tive, argumentative,  and  hortatory,  it  is  obvious  that 
all,  or  any  two  or  three,  of  these  elements  may  com- 
bine in  such  proportions  that  no  one  can  be  taken 
as  distinctive  of  the  whole  discourse.  And  so  it  will 
be  with  every  other  method  of  classification  that  has 
been  proposed.  There  are,  however,  two  distinct 
principles  or  bases  upon  which  these  imperfect  clas- 
sifications may  be  made.  One  of  these  relates  to 
the  subject-matter  of  the  sermon,  including  subjects, 
occasions,  and  materials.  These  have  already  been 
considered.^  The  other  basis  of  classification  has 
regard  to  what  may  be  called  the  homiletical  struc- 
ture of  the  sermon ;  and  this,  as  Phelps  has  pointed 
out,*  is  peculiar  to  sermons  as  distinguished  from 
other  compositions,  growing  out  of  their  relation  to 

1  See  Hoppin,  p.  444  ff.;  Phelps,  p.  28ff ;  Brooks,  p.  I29ff. 

2  Phelps,  p.  33.  ^  See  Part  I.  chaps,  iii.-v. 
*  Theory  of  Preaching,  p.  30. 


DIFFERENT  SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.        307 

the  Scriptures.  Accordingly  in  connection  with  the 
general  subject  of  Arrangement  it  will  be  proper  to 
consider  the  various  species  of  sermons  as  determined 
by  their  homiletical  structure.  There  has  already 
been  some  occasion  to  mention  these,  namely,  sub- 
ject-sermons, text-sermons,  and  expository  sermons. 
It  is  desirable  to  give  at  this  point  an  account  of 
their  respective  peculiarities,  with  practical  sugges- 
tions as  to  their  management. 

The  distinction  between  subject-sermons  and  text- 
sermons  has  to  do  simply  with  the  plan  of  the 
discourse,  especially  with  the  source  of  its  divisions. 
It  is  only  in  this  respect  that  they  constitute  different 
species,  and  yet  the  difference  is  one  of  considerable 
practical  importance.  The  phrases  in  question  —  for 
which  some  substitute  topical  and  textual  sermons,  or 
topical  and  textual  division  of  sermons  —  have  not 
been  generally  employed  with  great  precision  or  uni- 
formity. A  very  obvious  application  of  them,  and 
one  which  can  be  consistently  carried  through,  would 
be  as  follows:  Subject-sermons  are  those  in  which 
the  divisions  are  derived  from  the  subject,  indepen- 
dently of  the  text;  while  in  text-sermons,  the  divi- 
sions are  taken  from  the  text.  In  the  latter  case  as 
well  as  in  the  former,  there  may  be  a  definite  subject, 
distinctly  and  even  formally  stated ;  but  this  subject 
is  not  divided  according  to  its  own  nature,  but  only 
such  divisions  are  made  as  are  presented  by  the  text. 
Sometimes  the  two  plans  may  coincide.  Beginning 
with  a  subject,  one  may  find  so  appropriate  a  text, 
that  the  logical  divisions  of  the  subject  will  all  be 
contained  in  the  text ;  or  beginning  with  a  text,  he 
may  state  its  subject  in  so  felicitous  a  form  of  propo- 
sition, that  the  several  divisions  presented  in  the 
text  will  also  constitute  a  complete  logical  division 
of  the   proposition.     But   they   will   not   often  thus 


308       DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS. 

coincide,  and  the  fact  that  they  sometimes  do,  will 
not  make  them  less  distinct  in  principle. 

§  I.     SUBJECT-SERMONS. 

In  subject-sermons,  then,  we  draw  from  the  text  a 
certain  subject,  usually  stating  it  distinctly  in  the  form 
of  a  proposition,^  and  then  the  text,  having  furnished 
the  thought,  has  no  further  part  as  a  formative  force 
in  the  plan  of  treatment  pursued  in  the  sermon,  but 
the  subject  is  divided  and  treated  according  to  its 
own  nature,  just  as  it  would  be  if  not  derived  from  a 
text. 

This  form  of  treatment  has  important  advantages. 
It  better  insures  unity,  which  is  indispensable  to  the 
best  effects  of  discourse.  It  trains  the  preacher's 
mind  to  logical  analysis,  and  few  kinds  of  power  are 
so  valuable  to  him.  It  is  more  convincing  and 
pleasing  to  a  certain  order  of  minds  in  the  audience, 
especially  among  cultivated  people;  such  a  treat- 
ment having  a  more  logical  character,  and  also  a 
more  manifest  completeness.  Besides,  there  will 
often  be  practical  occasion  for  thus  thoroughly  dis- 
cussing a  subject.  The  needs  of  the  congregation 
will  make  the  preacher  wish  to  present  a  full  view  of 
some  doctrine,  or  some  topic  of  general  or  particular 
morality,  and  not  merely  the  special  aspects  of  it 
which  one  text  or  another  may  exhibit.  The  Scrip- 
tures do  not  present  truth  in  a  succession  of  logical 
propositions,  any  more  than  the  objects  of  nature  are 
found  grouped  according  to  scientific  classification. 
This  suits  the  design  of  the  Bible  as  a  book  to  be 
read,  and  also  leads  to  a  rich  variety  in  textual 
preaching.  But  it  is  frequently  instructive  and  satis' 
factory  to  discuss  some  collective  subject. 

1  Comp.  above,  chap.  ii.  §  2. 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF  SERMONS.       3^9 

It  Is  usually  better  that  the  subject  should  be  not 
general,  but  specific.  This,  as  we  have  heretofore 
seen,^  not  only  promotes  variety  in  successive  ser- 
mons, but  really  makes  each  subject  more  fruitful. 
And  if  in  addition  to  being  a  theme  specific  in  its 
logical  character,  it  be  the  specific  theme  of  the  text 
from  which  it  is  drawn,  this  removes,  in  part,  one  of 
the  objections  to  subject-sermons,  namely,  that  in  them 
the  text  does  not  perform  so  important  a  part  as  it 
ought  to  do  in  preaching.  Too  often  the  text  is  only 
a  starting-point,  with  which  the  sermon  afterwards 
maintains,  not  only  no  formal,  but  no  vital  connec- 
tion. Sometimes,  indeed,  it  is  made  simply  a  motto, 
a  practice  of  extremely  doubtful  propriety.  Of  course 
a  text  which  presents  a  specific  aspect  of  some  sub- 
ject may  be  lawfully  used  as  suggesting  the  gen- 
eral subject,  or  we  may  draw  from  a  comprehensive 
text  its  general  subject,  and  then  avowedly  confine 
ourselves  to  one  department  of  it.  But  as  a  rule,  it 
is  greatly  better  that  the  subject  should  be  precisely 
that  which  the  text  most  naturally  presents,  and 
which  most  thoroughly  exhausts  its  meaning.  A 
good  example  of  such  specific  subjects  is  found  in 
Robert  Hall's  three  sermons,  "Reasons  for  a  judgment 
to  come,"  '*  Character  of  the  judgment  to  come,"  "  Re- 
membrance in  youth  of  judgment  to  come."  ^  And  a 
text  is  in  each  case  taken  which  is  supposed  to  pre- 
sent the  specific  topic.  The  first  is  Acts  xxiv.  25, 
*•  As  Paul  reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and 
judgment  to  come,"  though  this  is  probably  an  un- 
warranted interpretation,  as  the  word  properly  sig- 
nifies "  discoursed ;  "  the  second  is  Heb.  vi.  2, 
"  Eternal  judgment ;  "  and  the  third,  Eccl.  xi.  9, 
*'  Rejoice,  O  young  man,  in  thy  youth  .  .  .  but  know 
thou  that  for  all  these  things  God  will  bring  thee  into 
1  Part  I.  chap.  Hi.  §1.  «  Works,  Vol.  IV.  p.  304. 


310        DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS. 

judgment."  Mr.  Hall's  biographer  states  that  he 
was  fond  of  thus  confining  himself  to  one  aspect  of  a 
subject.  In  like  manner,  South  has  a  number  of  dis- 
tinct sermons  on  Deliverance  from  Temptation. 

The  subject  will  be  divided  according  to  its  own 
nature,  and  to  our  practical  design  in  treating  it.^ 
This  design  will  usually  lead  us  either  to  explanation 
(whether  by  analysis  or  by  comparison),  to  proof,  or 
to  application  of  the  subject,  and  in  many  cases  will 
require  some  combination  of  these.  The  practically 
different  methods  of  dividing  are  extremely  numerous 
and  various,  and  here  the  analytical  and  imaginative 
powers  of  the  preacher  may  be  freely  exercised.  The 
formal  and  cumbrous  methods  given  in  the  "  Topics  " 
of  ancient  writers,  and  applied  to  preaching  by 
Claude,  are  now  generally  disregarded.  Indeed, 
Cicero  himself,  who  abridged  Aristotle's  treatise  on 
Topics,  has  elsewhere,^  after  giving  a  few  practical 
hints  as  to  the  divisions  of  a  discourse,  spoken  as  fol- 
lows :  *'  There  are  also  other  precepts  for  division, 
which  are  of  but  little  use  in  oratory;  they  are 
employed  in  philosophy,  and  I  have  transferred  such 
of  them  as  seemed  to  be  suitable."  This  distinction 
between  logical  analysis  and  oratorical  division  cannot 
be  too  earnestly  insisted  on.  Little  can  be  taught 
with  respect  to  dividing  a  subject  save  by  examples, 
and  these  can  be  most  profitably  studied  by  a  critical 
analysis  of  published  sermons,  and  a  repeated  and 
careful  inspection  of  the  plans  we  have  ourselves 
devised.^ 

^  The  character,  number,  order,  etc.,  of  divisions  have  been  dis- 
cussed above,  chap.  ii.  §§  2,  3. 

2  De  Invent.  I.  23. 

^  For  this  purpose  the  best  of  the  old  English  divines  are  Barrow 
and  South.  Tillotson's  plans  appear  more  simple,  and  thus  pref- 
erable, but  they  are  often  quite  defective.  Of  the  great  French 
preachers,  Saurin  is  better .  in  this  respect    than   even  Massillon. 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.       311 

Sometimes  no  complete  discussion  of  the  subject 
is  attempted,  but  we  have  only  a  series  of  re- 
marks upon  it.  Of  course  this  is  not  often  to  be 
commended.^ 


§  2.     TEXT-SERMONS. 

These  ought  to  be  governed  by  the  same  general 
principles  as  subject-sermons.  They  must  always 
have  a  plan,  and  commonly  divisions ;  and  the  prin- 
ciples laid  down  as  to  divisions  in  the  foregoing  chap- 
ter apply,  in  general,  to  text-sermons  as  well  as  others. 
Text-sermons  include  two  distinct  varieties,  those 
which  present  a  single  subject,  and  those  which  dis- 
cuss several  subjects. 

(i)   A  single  subject  is  drawn  from  the  text,  and 

Subject-sermons,  in  a  strict  sense,  are  especially  frequent  among 
Presbyterian  preachers ;  and  probably  no  sermons  in  existence  pre- 
sent a  larger  number  of  excellent  models  of  this  kind,  than  those 
of  Samuel  Davies.  If  the  study  of  one  of  these  older  preachers 
should  be  tending  to  make  one  too  formal  for  the  taste  of  the 
present  age,  he  can  correct  the  tendency  by  reading  Liddon's  Uni- 
versity Sermons,  or  R.  Fuller's  Sermons,  where  he  will  find  plans, 
both  topical  and  textual,  which  are  distinct  and  clear  without  being 
obtrusive  or  minute.  But  let  it  not  be  imagined  that  the  greatest 
preachers  are  faultless  in  their  plans,  or  even  uniformly  good.  They 
often  prepared  hastily,  or  their  minds  became  possessed  by  a  certain 
scheme  of  thought  so  that  they  did  not  perceive  its  faults,  or  could 
not  see  how  to  correct  them.  Andrew  Fuller  usually  divides  natu- 
rally and  well.  But  his  famous  sermon  on  Walking  by  Faith  (Works. 
Vol.  I.),  though  the  leading  division  is  simple  enough,  —  the  nature 
and  the  importance  of  walking  by  faith,  —  is  in  its  details  grievously 
loose-jointed  and  awkward.  In  fact,  it  was  suggested  by  an  incident 
during  his  ride  to  the  place  of  preaching.  A  rush  of  good  thoughts 
may  come  suddenly,  as  in  that  case,  but  very  seldom  in  a  good 
arrangement.  It  has  been  already  remarked  that  Spurgeon  often 
gives  excellent  plans ;  and  he  has  many  subject-sermons,  especially  in 
his  earlier  volumes.     His  later  sermons  are  commonly  textual. 

1  It  is  not  deemed  necessary  to  say  more  upon  subject-sermons, 
because  all  that  is  said  in  chapter  ii.  of  divisions  applies  directly  to 
them.  A  preacher  who  shrinks  from  preaching  sermons  of  this  sort 
should  constrain  himself  to  make  them,  at  least  somewhat  frequently 
for  the  sake  of  his  mental  discipline,  and  of  due  variety. 


312        DIFFERENT   SPECIES    OF   SERMONS. 

stated,  whether  formally  or  informally,  and  then  is 
discussed  under  such  divisions  as  the  text  furnishes. 
We  have  seen  that  this  may  sometimes  coincide  with 
a  complete  logical  division  of  the  subject  itself,  but 
in  those  rare  cases  it  would  still  be  called  a  text- 
sermon,  if  the  divisions  were  actually  derived  from 
a  contemplation  of  the  text.  In  general,  such  plans 
are  quite  different  from  those  which  a  logical  analysis 
of  the  subject  would  suggest.  Text-sermons  of  this 
sort  are  by  some  writers  confounded  with  subject- 
sermons,  because  in  both  cases  there  is  a  definite 
subject.     Others  call  them  textual-topical. 

The  divisions  thus  drawn  from  the  text,  while  not 
commonly  forming  a  complete  analysis  of  the  sub- 
ject in  itself  considered,  must  yet  be  so  related  to  the 
subject  and  to  each  other,  that  they  together  form 
a  structure,  a  symmetrical  whole.  Otherwise  the  dis- 
course is  felt  to  be  incomplete  and  fragmentary. 

A  well-constructed  text-sermon  of  this  kind  has 
most  of  the  advantages  possessed  by  subject-ser- 
mons, and  the  great  additional  advantage  that  it  is 
much  more  intimately  in  contact  with  the  text,  draw- 
ing from  it  not  only  the  subject  treated  but  all  the 
leading  thoughts  of  the  treatment.  This  method, 
accordingly,  is  very  largely  adopted.  It  gives  ample 
opportunity  for  variety,  freshness,  originality.  "A 
tact  is  needed  in  the  preacher  to  discover  the  hidden 
skeleton.  This  tact  will  be  acquired  gradually  and 
surely,  by  every  one  who  carefully  cultivates  himself 
in  all  homiletic  respects.  Like  all  nice  discernment, 
it  comes  imperceptibly  in  the  course  of  training  and 
discipline,  and  therefore  no  single  and  particular  rule 
for  its  acquisition  can  be  laid  down.  It  must  be  ac- 
quired, however,  or  the  fundamental  talent  for  textual 
sermonizing  will  be  wanting.  Moreover,  this  tact 
should    be  judicious.     It   is  possible  to    find    more 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.       313 

meaning  in  a  text  than  it  really  contains.  .  .  .  This 
talent  for  detecting  the  significance  of  Scripture 
must  be  confined  to  the  gist  of  it  —  to  the  evident 
and  complete  substance  of  it."  ^  The  German  preach- 
ers, who  have  to  preach  many  times  in  successive 
years  upon  the  same  passage,  often  show  great  ingenu- 
ity in  striking  out  new  plans  for  the  same  text,  —  plans 
which  shall  make  a  complete  section  of  the  whole 
passage,  but  in  a  new  direction.  '*  Take,  for  example, 
the  history  of  Peter's  denial.  I  can  set  out  either 
from  the  fact  of  the  denial  itself,  considering  it  as  to 
its  causes,  its  consequences,  etc. ;  or  froni  the  danger 
into  which  one  gets  who  warms  himself  with  the 
world ;  or  from  the  thought  that  in  this  world  every- 
thing helps  when  a  disciple  is  to  be  brought  to  fall; 
or  from  the  repentance  of  Peter,  which  presupposes 
as  well  love,  as  weakness  of  love ;  or  I  can  set  forth 
the  power  of  the  love  of  Jesus  in  his  look  at  Peter,  (^a) 
how  it  humbles  him,  better  than  law  and  penalty  could 
do,  (^)  how  it  makes  a  new  man  of  him.  In  all  five 
sermons  the  whole  of  the  text  would  have  place,  but 
every  time  in  a  different  light."  ^  "  One  of  our  Lord's 
miracles  of  healing  may  be  considered  either  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  divine  grace  glorifying  itself 
in  this  history,  in  which  case  Christ's  mode  of  action 
is  made  to  illustrate  that  of  God  (for  example,  he 
delays,  indeed,  with  his  help,  but  at  last  he  does 
help)  ;  or  the  history  may  be  chiefly  considered  from 
the  ethical  standpoint,  and  then  Christ  is  the  ex- 
ample according  to  which  we  are  to  act  in  similar 
cases ;  or,  finally,  we  consider  the  conduct  of  the  per- 
sons themselves  on  whom  the  healing  is  performed, 
who  are  set  before  us  as  an  example  of  faith  (for  ex- 
ample, the  centurion  of  Capernaum)."^  Among  Eng- 

1  Shedd,  p.  152.  2  Palmer,  Horn.  s.  378. 

3  Hagenbach,  s.  120.    Comp.  the  plans  of  Krummacher,  in  his 


314       DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF    SERMONS. 

lish  preachers,  Melvill  is  famous  for  the  ingenuity 
with  which  he  develops  a  rich  meaning  from  passages 
which  to  most  persons  would  suggest  nothing. 

Here,  as  in  the  case  of  subject-sermons,  we  hear 
sometimes  merely  a  series  of  **  observations  "  or  '^re- 
marks" upon  the  subject,  which  could  hardly  be 
called  divisions  of  it.  The  following  example  is  from 
Beddome :  Acts  ix.  4,  *'  Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest 
thou  me?"  (i)  It  is  the  general  character  of  un- 
converted men  to  be  of  a  persecuting  spirit.  (2) 
Christ  has  his  eye  upon  persecutors.  (3)  The  injury 
done  to  Christ's  people,  Christ  considers  as  done  to 
himself.  (4)  The  calls  of  Christ  are  particular.  ^ 
The  fourth  might  be  omitted.  Such  remarks  sug- 
gested by  the  text  would  seem  a  more  satisfactory 
treatment  than  topical  remarks,  but  one  should  not 
very  often  allow  himself  to  construct  sermons  in  so 
loose  a  fashion. 

The  preacher  must  exercise  his  judgment  with  ref- 
erence to  every  particular  discourse,  as  to  whether  it 
is  better  to  make  a  textual  division  of  the  subject,  or 
to  treat  the  subject  independently,  according  to  its 
own  nature.  ^ 

(2)  In  other  text-sermons,  there  is  not  one  definite 
and  comprehensive  subject,  but  several  topics  pre- 
sented by  the  text  are  successively  treated.  These, 
though  they  do  not  admit  of  being  combined  into 
one,  ought  to  have  such  a  mutual  relation  as  to  give 
the  discourse  unity.     The  same  sentence  of  Scripture 

"  David,"  and  the  sermons  on  the  Temptation  of  Christ  by  Krum- 
macher  and  by  Monod,  in  Fish's  "  Select  Discourses  from  the  French 
and  German." 

1  Quoted  by  Shedd,  p.  1 50. 

2  Some  preachers,  for  example  South,  are  very  fond  of  sermons 
which  draw  some  divisions  directly  from  the  text,  but  others  from  the 
nature  of  the  subject.  This  might  seem  an  incongruous  mixture,  but 
is  often  well-managed  and  effective. 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.      315 

might  suggest  several  entirely  distinct  topics,  and  a 
sermon  upon  these  would  be  really  several  sermons  in 
succession.  A  discourse  that  has  not  unity,  both 
offends  taste  and  lacks  power  —  in  fact,  is  not  a  dis- 
course at  all.  The  unity,  however,  may  be  that  of 
subject  or  of  person  or  of  place,  provided  in  the 
latter  cases  there  be  also  some  internal  connection, 
so  that  all  may  blend  in  the  general  effect  of  the  dis- 
course. Thus  topics  apparently  so  diverse  as  suicide, 
ingratitude,  avarice,  and  remorse,  might  all  be  treated 
in  a  sermon  upon  Judas,  because  they  not  only  per- 
tain to  the  one  person,  but  were  in  his  case  intimately 
connected,  as  will  be  apparent  from  stating  them  in 
a  different  order,  avarice,  ingratitude,  remorse,  sui- 
cide. After  pointing  out  that  in  him  they  were  thus 
connected,  one  might  even  treat  of  them  in  some 
other  order,  if  oratorically  more  convenient,  and  the 
topics,  though  separate,  would  at  least  seem  tied 
together  into  a  kind  of  unity.  Such  an  example 
shows  that  it  is  allowable  to  go  quite  far  in  this  direc- 
tion :  but  as  a  rule,  we  ought  to  have  as  close  an  in- 
ternal relation  among  the  topics  of  the  discourse  as 
possible.  It  is  the  great  fault  of  this  variety  of  text- 
sermons  that  they  are  apt  to  be  desultory  and  ram- 
bling, to  resemble  the  scattering  fire  of  irregular 
soldiers,  rather  than  the  systematic  and  concentrated 
discharge  of  a  disciplined  body.  We  avoid  this  fault 
by  refusing  to  include  in  the  sermon  any  topic  sug- 
gested by  the  text  which  will  not  take  its  place  in 
a  connected  series,  though  the  topic  in  itself  might 
be  interesting  and  instructive. 

In  both  these  varieties,  especially  in  the  second, 
the  divisions  may  sometimes  be  stated  in  the  very 
words  of  the  text.  Thus,  The  young  convert  com- 
mended to  Gody  Jude  24,  (i)  That  is  able  to  keep 
you  from  falling ;   (2)   And  to  present  you,  (^)  fault- 


3l6         DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS. 

less,  (^)  before  the  presence  of  his  glory,  (c)  with 
exceeding  joy.  Gal.  v.  6,  What  it  is  that  in  Christ 
Jesus  avails,  (i)  Neither  circumcision  nor  uncir- 
cumcision.  (2)  But  {a)  faith,  (Jj)  which  worketh,  {c) 
by  love.  The  order  of  the  clauses  may  be  varied, 
if  deemed  oratorically  more  suitable.  Luke  xxiv. 
43,  (i)  Thou  shalt  be  in  Paradise,  (2)  Thou  shalt 
be  with  me  in  Paradise.  (3)  To-day  thou  shalt  be 
with  me  in  Paradise.^  When  one  thus  takes  up 
the  successive  words  or  clauses  of  a  text,  and  **  en- 
larges "  upon  them,  the  process  closely  resembles 
musical  "  variations  "  upon  a  familiar  tune,  possessing 
similar  advantages,  and  being  liable  to  the  same 
faults.  It  is  often  so  managed  as  to  be  wearisome, 
what  Schleiermacher  called  spelliitg  the  text ;  some- 
times it  is  offensive,  as  when  a  passage  is  so  dissected 
as  to  destroy  the  very  life  of  it.  But  when  the  text 
is  happily  chosen,  and  the  treatment,  while  natural, 
is  fresh,  instructive,  and  animated,  with  a  manifest 
connection  in  the  topics,  and  a  sustained  oratorical 
progress  to  the  end,  such  a  sermon  may  be  highly 
effective.  The  people  love  to  have  their  minds  kept 
in  close  contact  with  the  text,  if  it  is  done  in  an 
interesting  and  impressive  way. 

Or  the  divisions  may  be  stated  in  different  terms, 
though  following  the  order  of  the  text;  or  both  in 
different  terms  and  in  a  different  order,  if  this  would 
give  a  more  oratorical  arrangement.  The  statement 
must  commonly  be  thus  varied,  in  text-sermons  upon 
a  single  definite  subject ;  and  much  will  depend  upon 
the  skill  with  which  the  divisions  are  drawn  from  the 
text  and  enunciated.     Ezek.  xi.  19,  20,  **  And  I  will 

1  The  plan  often  pursued  with  the  words,  "  Why  will  ye  die  ? " 
namely,  to  emphasize  each  word  in  succession,  is  forbidden  by 
the  fact  that  in  the  original  neither  **  will "  nor  **  ye  "  is  separately 
expressed,  so  that  they  cannot  be  taken  as  in  any  sense  emphatic. 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.      317 

give  them  one  heart,"  etc.  Genuine  Religiony  devel- 
oped in  four  particulars,  (i)  Its  author.  (2)  The 
disposition  it  produces.  (3)  The  obedience  it  de- 
mands. (4)  The  blessedness  it  insures.^  Psalm 
Ixxiii.  24,  26,  God  is  the  pious  man's  all  ■  in  all, 
(i)  His  guide  through  life.  (2)  His  support  in  death. 
(3)  His  portion  forever.  Sometimes  very  little  de- 
parture from  the  words  of  the  text  is  necessary. 
Rom.  V.  I,  2,  The  believer's  happy  state,  (i)  He 
may  have  peace  with  God.  (2)  He  may  stand  (/.  e, 
stand  fast)  in  the  grace  of  God.  (3)  He  may  exult 
in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God. 

It  often  happens  that  the  thoughts  of  a  text  can  be 
very  thoroughly  and  neatly  drawn  out  by  a  series  of 
qicestionSy  the  answers  to  these  forming  the  divisions 
of  the  sermon.     Examples  of  this  are  familiar. 

In  treating  the  details  of  a  text-sermon,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  confine  ourselves  strictly  to  views  pre- 
sented by  the  text.  Any  one  of  the  topics  may  he 
developed  and  applied  according  to  its  own  nature, 
or  according  to  the  specific  design  of  the  sermon. 
Yet  it  is  always  pleasing,  when  effected  without  arti- 
ficiality, to  see  all  the  lines  of  development  kept 
within  the  limits  of  the  text. 

§  3.     EXPOSITORY  SERMONS. 

The  name  of  this  species  of  sermons  is  derived  from 
a  peculiarity  in  their  materials,  namely,  the  fact  that 
they  are  mainly  occupied  with  exposition.  But  their 
homiletical  peculiarities  belong  to  the  matter  of  con- 
struction, to  that  oratorical  arrangement  and  adapta- 
tion which  should  distinguish  an  expository  sermon 
from    a   commentary  or   an  exegetical   essay.     The 

^  Jay,  quoted  by  Kidder,  p.  206.  Jay  is  particularly  fond  of  this 
species  of  sermons,  and  often  felicitous  in  his  plans. 


3l8        DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF  SERMONS. 

present,  therefore,  seems  to  be  the  appropriate  place 
for  discussing  this  important  variety  of  sermons. 

Almost  every  preacher  one  meets,  if  asked  whether 
he  often  makes  expository  discourses,  will  answer, 
"No;  I  have  long  believed  there  ought  to  be  more 
preaching  of  that  kind,  but  the  attempts  I  formerly 
made  in  that  direction  were  quite  unsuccessful,  and 
it  seems  I  have  no  talent  for  it"  But  comparatively 
few  have  ever  fairly  tried  to  develop  such  a  talent. 
Men  labor  for  years  to  acquire  the  power  of  produc- 
ing a  good  topical  sermon.  All  their  rhetorical 
training,  and  all  their  practice,  is  directed  to  that 
end.  Then  they  try  the  experiment  of  expository 
preaching,  which  requires  a  different  kind  of  practice, 
and  perhaps  even  a  different  method  of  studying 
the  Scriptures,  and  wonder  that  their  first  attempts 
prove  a  comparative  failure.  This  is  as  unreason- 
able as  the  course  of  those  who,  after  training  them- 
selves to  read  sermons,  make  a  timid  and  ill-prepared 
efTort  to  preach  without  writing,  and  infer  from  the 
almost  inevitable  failure  that  they  have  no  talent  for 
extemporizing. 

(i)  It  is  not  thought  necessary  to  discuss  at  any 
length  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  exposi- 
tory preaching.  The  former  are  to  some  extent 
obvious  and  generally  recognized,  and  they  have 
been  admirably  presented  by  Alexander,  in  his 
*'  Thoughts  on  Preaching."  ^  As  stated  by  him,  they 
are  as  follows :  — 

(^)  This  method  better  corresponds  with  the  very 
idea  and  design  of  preaching,  {b)  It  is  the  primitive 
and  ancient  method,  {c)  It  insures  a  better  knowl- 
edge of  the  Scriptures,  on  the  part  of  preacher  and 
hearers  —  and  of  the  Scriptures  in  their  connection. 
(^)    It   causes   sermons    to   contain   more  of   pure 

1  Pages  272-313. 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.        3^9 

Scripture  truths,  and  scriptural  modes  of  viewing 
things,  {e)  It  gives  occasion  for  remarking  on  many- 
passages  of  the  Bible  which  otherwise  might  never 
enter  into  one's  sermons;  and  for  giving  important 
practical  hints  and  admonitions  which  might  seem  to 
some  hearers  offensively  personal  if  introduced  into 
a  topical  discussion,  but  which  are  here  naturally 
suggested  by  the  passage  in  hand.  (/)  And  it 
greatly  diminishes  the  temptation  to  misinterpret 
texts  by  excessive  allegorizing,  by  "  accommoda- 
tion," etc. ;  for  men  are  often  driven  into  such  mis- 
interpretation by  the  difficulty  of  finding  for  every 
sermon  a  short  passage  which  will  legitimately  afford 
the  requisite  amount  of  material.^ 

It  might  be  more  desirable  to  discuss  the  objec- 
tions to  this  method,  for  these  often  appear  more 
serious  than  they  really  are.  There  is,  in  many 
quarters,  a  popular  prejudice  against  expository 
preaching,  arising  from  the  fact  that  it  is  so  often 
badly  managed,  and  from  the  notion  that  it  is  a 
labor-saving  contrivance.  On  rainy  Sundays,  or  on 
week-nights,  the  preacher  who  has  no  sermon  pre- 
pared, or  wishes  to  save  his  elaborate  preparation 
for  a  more  auspicious  occasion,  will  frequently  under- 
take to  ''  read  a  passage  of  Scripture,  and  make  a 
few  remarks ;  "  feeling  that  this  enterprise  is  attended 
by  no  risk,  because,  as  some  quaint  old  preacher 
expressed  it,  if  he  is  "  persecuted  in  one  verse,  he 
can  flee  to  another."  Hence  the  people  rather  natu- 
rally conclude  that  whenever  one  takes  a  long  text, 
it  is  an  expedient  to  dispense  with  labor.  Besides 
this  prejudice  against  the  method,  which  a  judicious 
and  laborious   preacher  can  soon   overcome,  it  has 

1  On  the  advantages  of  expository  preaching,  compare  Wayland, 
Ministry  of  the  Gospel,  pp.  83-86 ;  Dabney's  Sacred  Rhetoric,  p.  76  £f. ; 
W.  M.  Taylor's  Ministry  of  the  Word,  pp.  161-175. 


320       DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS. 

inherent  disadvantages.  Our  people,  it  is  to  be 
regretted,  seldom  follow  that  excellent  Scottish  fash- 
ion, of  keeping  a  Bible  in  hand  during  the  sermon ; 
and  so  they  find  it  hard  to  remember  the  general 
drift  and  connection  of  the  long  text,  as  they  are 
accustomed  to  do  with  a  short  one.  This  difficulty 
one  must  bear  in  mind,  seeking  to  overcome  it  as 
far  as  possible.  Some  persons,  too,  in  our  extremely 
restless  age,  object  to  continuous  exposition  on  the 
ground  that  it  lacks  variety;  they  grow  tired  of  hear- 
ing the  preacher,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  announce  the 
same  book  and  perhaps  the  same  chapter.  Others 
really  care  so  little  about  the  Bible  that  they  take  no 
interest  in  explanations  of  it ;  they  wish  the  preacher 
to  make  his  text  merely  a  point  of  departure,  and  to 
give  them  *'  something  fresh."  Others  object  that 
the  expository  sermon  cannot  present  those  con- 
nected arguments  in  which  the  human  mind  so 
greatly  delights;  but  it  may  trace  and  unfold  the 
argument  of  an  inspired  writer,  which  ought  to 
be  more  interesting  than  one  constructed  by  the 
preacher  himself  If  it  be  still  further  objected  that 
a  discourse  which  is  mainly  or  largely  occupied  with 
explanation  of  the  text,  can  leave  but  little  room  for 
application,  we  may  answer  that  the  impressive- 
ness  of  an  application  depends  very  largely  upon 
the  interest  which  the  hearers  have  been  previously 
brought  to  feel  in  the  subject  applied ;  and  that  a 
brief,  and  even  unexpected  application  or  appeal 
is  often  more  impressive  than  one  which  gives  notice, 
and  throws  men  on  the  defensive. 

Shedd  takes  the  ground^  that  "there  is  somewhat 
less  call  for  expository  preaching  than  there  was 
before  the  establishment  of  Sabbath  schools  and 
Bible  classes."     He  adds,  however,  that  "it  is  the 

1  Horn.  p.  157. 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF    SERMONS.       321 

duty  of  the  preacher,  occasionally,  to  lay  out  his  best 
strength  in  the  production  of  an  elaborate  exposi- 
tory sermon,  which  shall  not  only  do  the  ordinary 
work  of  a  sermon,  which  shall  not  only  instruct, 
awaken,  and  move,  but  which  shall  also  serve  as  a 
sort  of  guide  and  model  for  the  teacher  of  the  Sab- 
bath school  and  the  Bible  class."  But  it  is  worthy 
of  inquiry  whether  the  Sunday-school  teaching  does 
not  actually  prepare  people  to  receive  expository 
preaching  with  higher  appreciation  and  profit.  The 
great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  making  it  effective  is 
not  knowledge  of  Scripture  but  ignorance  of  it.  One 
sometimes  fancies  he  could  point  out,  after  preach- 
ing to  a  congregation  of  strangers,  those  who  are 
engaged  in  the  regular  study  of  the  Bible,  from 
the  greater  interest  with  which  they  listened  to  any 
explanations  of  Scripture  that  may  have  occurred  in 
the  sermon.  Robert  Hall  found  his  regular  Sunday 
morning  expository  sermon  very  acceptable  at  Cam- 
bridge ;  but  at  Leicester  he  lamented  to  a  friend  that 
the  congregation,  being  generally  less  intelligent, 
could  not  be  brought  to  like  this  method,  and  he  was 
annoyed  at  having  to  change  his  habit,  and  hunt  up 
two  separate  texts  for  every  Sunday. 

(2)  But  the  thing  here  specially  proposed  is  to 
offer  practical  suggestions  as  to  the  proper  manage- 
ment of  expository  preaching.  It  is  in  several 
respects  a  peculiar  variety  of  discourse,  requiring 
peculiar  treatment ;  and  yet  the  treatises  of  Homi- 
letics,  while  never  failing  to  urge  that  this  method 
has  great  advantages,  seldom  furnish  the  student 
with  any  directions  for  his  guidance  in  attempting 
it.  The  hints  which  follow  are  derived  from  some 
experience  and  observation,  from  conversation  with 
other  ministers,  and  from  the  study  of  the  best 
specimens  within  reach. 

21 


322        DIFFERENT   SPECIES    OF   SERMONS. 

An  expository  discourse  may  be  defined  as  one 
which  is  occupied  mainly,  or  at  any  rate  very  largely, 
with  the  exposition  of  Scripture.  It  by  no  means 
excludes  argument  and  exhortation  as  to  the  doc- 
trines or  lessons  which  this  exposition  develops.  It 
may  be  devoted  to  a  long  passage,  or  to  a  very  short 
one,  even  a  part  of  a  sentence.  It  may  be  one  of  a 
series,  or  may  stand  by  itself.  We  at  once  per- 
ceive that  there  is  no  broad  line  of  division  between 
expository  preaching  and  the  common  methods,  but 
that  one  may  pass  by  almost  insensible  gradations 
from  textual  to  expository  sermons.  ^  We  see,  too, 
that  men  often  preach  expository  sermons  which 
they  would  not  call  by  that  name.  Moreover,  it  is 
common  to  apply  the  term  only  to  discourses  upon 
the  doctrinal,  preceptive,  and  devotional  portions  of 
the  Bible,  and  not  to  those  which  treat  of  the  nar- 
rative portions.  Now  the  methods  of  exposition 
appropriate  to  Scripture  history  are  of  course  quite 
different  from  those  applied  to  the  other  portions. 
But  whenever  the  discourse  is  not  merely  a  discus- 
sion of  certain  thoughts  suggested  by  a  Scripture 
story  or  scene,  but  in  the  first  place,  spends  much 
time  in  bringing  out  clearly  and  vividly  the  scene 
or  story  itself,  that  is  really  historical  exposition. 
And  this  is  surely  a  highly  important  class  of  expos- 
itory discourses.  A  very  large  portion  of  the  Bible 
consists  of  narrative,  and  in  this,  as  in  other  re- 
spects, the  Bible  is  adapted  to  its  purpose ;  for  nar- 
rative possesses  an  unfailing  interest,  for  old  and 
young,  cultivated  and  ignorant,  converted  and  un- 
converted. But  sermons  on  historical  passages  are 
very  apt  to  err,  in  one  of  two  directions.     In  the  one 

1  Nearly  all  that  has  been  said  above,  §  2,  upon  text-sermons, 
applies  directly  to  expository  preaching.  See  also  §§  i,  2,  as  to  the 
plan  of  discourse. 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES    OF   SERMONS.      323 

case  the  preacher  makes  haste  to  deduce  from  the 
narrative  before  him  a  subject,  or  certain  doctrines 
or  lessons,  and  proceeds  to  discuss  these  precisely 
as  if  he  had  drawn  them  from  some  verse  in  Romans 
or  the  Psalms ;  thus  sinking  the  narrative,  with  all 
its  charm,  completely  out  of  sight.  In  the  other 
case,  he  indulges  in  a  vast  amount  of  the  often 
ridiculous  thing  called  "word-painting,"  overlaying 
the  simple  and  beautiful  Scripture  story  with  his 
elaborate  descriptions,  and  showing  no  desire,  or 
having  no  time,  to  give  us  any  glimpse  of  the  les- 
sons which  the  narrative  teaches.  There  is  certainly 
a  middle  course.  Without  consuming  our  time  in 
exhibiting  overwrought  pictures  of  his  own,  the 
preacher  may  seek  to  throw  light  on  the  Bible  pic- 
ture, so  as  to  make  us  see  it  plainly  and  vividly,  and 
may  either  indicate  the  lessons  as  he  advances  from 
point  to  point,  or  group  them  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
discourse.  What  we  insist  on  is,  that  there  ought 
to  be  such  a  method  of  preaching  upon  the  narrative 
portions  of  Scripture  as  should  be  distinctively  ap- 
propriate to  narrative,  while  yet  it  is  preaching.^ 

What,  now,  is  the  prime  requisite  to  the  effec- 
tiveness of  an  expository  sermon.?  Our  answer 
must  be,  unity r  Unity  in  a  discourse  is  necessary 
to  instruction,  to  conviction,  and  to  persuasion. 
Without  it,  the  taste  of  enlightened  hearers  cannot 
be  satisfied,  and  even  the  uncultivated,  though  they 
may  not  know  why,  will  be  far  less  deeply  impressed. 
But  unity  in  an  expository  discourse  is  by  many 
preachers  never  aimed  at.  They  conceive  of  it  as 
a  mere  series  of  disjointed  remarks  upon  the  succes- 

1  Comp.  on  historical  subjects,  Part  I.  chap.  iii.  §  3;  and  on  de- 
scription, Part  I.  chap.  vi.  §  2. 

2  On  the  importance  of  unity,  comp.  Phelps,  Theory  of  Preaching, 
pp.  178, 179;  and  Dabney,  p.  109. 


324        DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS. 

sive  verses.  It  was  to  this  kind  of  "homilies"  that 
Schleiermacher  referred,  when  he  said  that  they 
are  composed  of  little  sermons  of  the  common  form 
tacked  together.^  But  it  is  not  at  all  necessary 
that  an  expository  sermon  should  exhibit  this  fault. 
"  The  difficulty  as  to  unity,  presented  by  this  kind 
of  discourse,  never  amounts  to  impossibility.  We 
do  not,  at  random,  cut  from  the  general  text  of  the 
sacred  book  the  particular  text  of  a  homily.  The 
selection  is  not  arbitrary.  The  limit  of  the  text  is 
predetermined  by  reference  to  unity,  which,  there- 
fore, we  shall  be  at  no  loss  to  discover  in  it."^  in 
making  a  single,  detached  expository  discourse,  one 
can  easily  see  to  it  that  the  passage  selected  shall 
have  unity.  In  continuous  exposition  of  the  same 
book,  it  may  sometimes  be  necessary  to  take  a  pas- 
sage in  which  this  is  not  the  case;  but  even  then, 
we  may  gather  from  it  such  thoughts  as  can  be 
framed  into  one  plan,  and  pass  over  the  remainder, 
or  notice  them  very  briefly.  Let  there  be  unity  at 
whatever  cost.  And  not  only  this,  but  structure. 
Thanks  to  the  influence  of  the  schoolmen,  the  modern 
mind  greatly  delights  in  analysis,  and  in  the  regular 
construction  of  the  materials  which  analysis  has  fur- 
nished, and  hence  the  great  preference  of  many  for 
topical  discourses.  The  homilies  left  us  by  the 
Fathers  are  frequently  quite  deficient  in  respect  of 
orderly  structure,  and  sometimes  even  destitute  of 
unity.  And  some  persons  appear  to  imagine  that 
we  can  have  no  "homilies"  except  upon  the  model 
of  the  Fathers,  and  with  a  total  disregard  of  modern 
taste  and  modes  of  thought.  But  a  discourse  upon 
an  extended  passage  of  Scripture  well  chosen  and 
well  handled,  may  have  a  definite  topic  and  a  dis- 

1  Palmer,  Horn.  s.  380. 

2  Vinet,  p.  14S;  comp.  Shedd,  p.  153. 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.        325 

tinct  and  orderly  plan,  and  yet  not  fail  to  be  an 
expository  discourse,  dealing  largely  in  explanation 
of  the  text  Let  us  carefully  observe,  then,  that  an 
expository  sermon  may  have,  and  must  have,  both 
unity  and  an  orderly  structure;  for  the  frequent 
practical  neglect  of  these  requisites  is  one  principal 
cause  of  those  failures  to  which  allusion  was  made 
at  the  outset. 

When  an  inexperienced  preacher  begins  to  think 
of  attempting  expository  preaching,  his  mind  is  very 
apt  to  turn  at  once  toward  the  idea  of  continuous 
exposition.  He  must  get  up  a  series. ^  But  why 
should  not  the  preacher  first  discipline  himself  in 
this  kind  of  preaching,  and  accustom  his  congre- 
gation to  it,  by  the  exposition,  every  now  and  then, 
of  detached  passages?  It  will  be  time  enough  for 
a  series  when  he  has  gained  a  little  more  practice, 
yea,  and  has  made  repeated  and  very  mature  study 
of  the  book  to  be  treated.  And  let  it  be  urged  that 
first  attempts  shall  not  be  made  upon  a  Psalm,  as  is 
very  generally  the  case ;  for  with  occasional  excep- 
tions the  Psalms  are  comparatively  lacking  in  mani- 
fest unity,  and  in  distinct  connection  and  regular 
progress,  so  that  it  requires  practice  to  handle  them 
successfully.  It  will  also  sometimes  be  well  to  take 
an  extended  passage  and  merely  make  a  text-sermon 
on  a  long  text,  gathering  several  thoughts  from  it 
and  using  them  as  in  the  ordinary  text-sermon  upon 
a  short  text  Or  a  brief  text  may  be  announced, 
and  the  sermon  be  occupied  with  a  discussion  of  the 
entire  paragraph  in  which  it  stands.  This,  indeed, 
is  often  done  by  men  who  have  no  thought  that  they 

*  The  author  has  recollections,  more  vivid  than  pleasing,  of  a  first 
attempt,  which  consisted  in  a  series  upon  Colossians,  and  which  was 
declared  by  a  preacher's  best  adviser  to  have  been  on  the  whole  a 
dedded  failure. 


326       DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS. 

are  preaching  expository  sermons.  By  such  means 
the  people  cease  to  imagine  that  expository  preach- 
ing is  entirely  different  from  other  methods,  and 
become  accustomed  and  attached  to  all  alike.  Then, 
whenever  a  series  is  attempted,  there  will  be  little 
feeling  of  strangeness  about  it,  and  much  less  diffi- 
culty in  sustaining  the  interest. 

We  turn  now  to  the  case  of  continuous  exposi- 
tion. Here,  as  has  been  intimated,  the  first  thing 
to  be  done  is  to  make  a  careful  study  beforehand  of 
the  entire  book,  or  other  portion  of  Scripture  to 
which  the  series  is  to  be  devoted.  To  view  every 
book  as  a  whole,  to  grasp  its  entire  contents,  and 
then  trace  in  detail  the  progress  of  its  narrative  or 
argument,  is  a  method  of  Scripture  study  far  too 
little  practised.  It  is  one  of  the  benefits  of  exposi- 
tory preaching  that  it  compels  the  preacher  to  study 
in  this  way.  We  may  say,  in  general,  that  no  man 
will  succeed  in  expository  preaching  unless  he  de- 
lights in  exegetical  study  of  the  Bible,  unless  he 
loves  to  search  out  the  exact  meaning  of  its  sen- 
tences, phrases,  words.  In  order  to  this,  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  original  languages  of  Scripture  is  of 
course  exceedingly  desirable,  but  it  is  by  no  means 
indispensable.  Andrew  Fuller,  who  dealt  largely 
and  successfully  in  this  method  of  preaching,  had 
substantially  no  knowledge  of  Hebrew  and  Greek, 
and  his  writings  were  devoted  not  to  commentary, 
but  to  didactic  and  polemic  theology.  Yet  he  loved 
to  study  the  very  words  of  Scripture.  In  all  his 
works  it  is  manifest  that  he  did  not  content  himself 
with  gathering  the  general  meaning  of  a  passage, 
but  was  exceedingly  anxious  to  know  its  exact  mean- 
ing. One  of  the  most  eloquent  Baptist  ministers 
of  America,  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  century,  was 
never  so  happy,  so  charming,  as  in  expository  ser* 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.       327 

mons.^     He,  too,  was  unacquainted  with  Greek  and 
Hebrew,  and  was  not  liberally  supplied  with  com- 
mentaries ;  but  he  loved,  above  all  things,  to  ponder 
and  to  talk  about  the  meaning  of  God's  Word.    There 
appears  to  have  been  a  change  in  this  respect  which 
is  to  be  lamented.     We  have  a  great  multiplication 
of  commentaries,  and  an  immense  amount  of  more  or 
less  real  study  of  the  Scriptures  in  Sunday  Schools, 
we  have  many  more  ministers  than  formerly  who 
know  something  of  the  original  languages,  but  there 
is  reason  to  fear  that  the  close,  thoughtful,  lovingly 
patient  study  of  the  Bible  is  less  common  among  the 
ministry  now  than  it  once  was.     As  to  conversation 
about  the  meaning  of  this  or  that  passage,  such  as 
once  abounded  when  preachers  were  thrown  together, 
it  has  gone  out  of  fashion.     A  man  who  should  raise 
such  a  question  now  among  a  group  of  ministers, 
sojourning  together  during  the  session  of  some  asso- 
ciation or  convention,  would  be  almost  stared  at.     It 
will  not  do  to  say  that  we  manage  these  questions 
better  at   home  among  our  books.     He  who  most 
zealously  uses  his  books,  at  the  same  time  thinking 
for  himself  as  every  man  that  is  a  man  will  do,  finds 
the  largest  number  of  points  arising,  upon  which 
the  books  utterly  disagree  or  are  unsatisfactory,  and 
concerning  which   he  would  like  to  compare  views 
with  intelligent  brethren.      But  not  to  dwell  further 
upon  this  opinion,  it   is  proper  earnestly  to  insist 
that    one    great   reason   why  many   ministers    find 
expository  preaching  difficult  is,  that  they  have  not 
been    sufficiently   accustomed    to   study  the   Bible. 
Our  rapid  general  reading  is  very  useful,  our  devo- 

1  [The  author  here  alludes  to  his  kinsman,  the  celebrated  Andrew 
Broaddus,  Sr.,  of  Caroline  County,  Va.,  who,  though  a  man  of  remark* 
able  gifts  and  much  sought  after,  preferred  all  his  life  a  country 
pastorate.  —  D.] 


328        DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS. 

tional  reading  of  brief  portions  is  indispensable  to 
personal  piety,  but  the  downright  study  of  Scripture 
is  too  often  confined  to  the  texts  for  next  Sunday, 
and  their  immediate  context.  The  first  thing  to  do, 
then,  after  determining  to  give  a  series  of  expository 
sermons  upon  a  book,  or  other  portion  of  Scripture, 
is  to  study  it  all  over  in  advance,  with  some  of  the 
best  explanatory  commentaries,  and  with  especial 
attention  to  the  general  contents  and  connection. 
To  commit  the  book  to  memory  would  be  no  bad 
idea,  but,  at  any  rate,  one  should  get  the  whole  train 
of  thought  or  series  of  facts,  from  beginning  to  end, 
firmly  fixed  in  his  mind. 

Next,  it  would  be  well  to  mark  out  a  scheme  of 
sermons  covering  the  whole  ground.  Previous  ex- 
perience in  the  exposition  of  detached  passages  will 
enable  one  to  do  this  without  any  great  difficulty, 
and,  of  course,  there  can  be  alterations,  if  occasion 
for  them  should  arise  in  the  progress  of  the  series. 
The  great  advantage  of  making  out  the  scheme  in 
advance  is,  that  we  can  thus  distribute  most  judi- 
ciously the  several  topics  of  the  book.  In  Romans, 
for  example,  various  subjects  are  alluded  to  in  the 
first  three  chapters,  which  are  afterwards  treated  at 
some  length.  It  would  be  awkward  if  one  should 
go  into  any  general  discussion  of  these  topics  at  the 
point  of  their  first  occurrence.  They  ought  to  be 
briefly  considered  there,  and  reserved  for  more  exten- 
sive remark  where  they  are  introduced  again.  It 
would  very  rarely  be  advisable,  however,  to  promise 
at  the  outset  a  definite  number  of  discourses.  In- 
deed, it  is  not  always  best  to  announce  a  series  at 
all.  It  may  be  added  that  one  must  beware  of  going 
too  slowly.  Let  there  be  manifest  progress,  such  as 
the  restless  spirit  of  our  generation  requires.  But 
we  may  pause  upon  any  specially  interesting  sen- 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.       329 

tence  or  phrase,  even  to  the  extent,  in  some  cases, 
of  devoting  a  whole  sermon  to  it.  Thus  there  will 
be  variety  as  well  as  progress ;  and  hearers  will  be 
gratified  to  perceive  that  the  preacher  marks  out  pas- 
sages, not  according  to  their  mere  external  dimen- 
sions, but  according  to  the  richness  of  their  available 
contents. 

But  now  the  particular  discourse  is  to  be  con- 
structed. The  passage  before  us  has  unity,  and  we 
note  the  heads  which  it  presents,  as  we  should  do  in 
a  textual  sermon.  Thus  we  shall  have  a  structure, 
a  discourse,  and  not  a  scattering  talk.  But  one  of 
the  principal  difficulties  in  the  entire  task  now  pre- 
sents itself,  XhQ  proper  handling  of  the  details.  If  we 
simply  take  the  topic  and  the  heads  which  the  pas- 
sage affords,  and  proceed  to  discuss  them  in  our  own 
way,  that  is  not  an  expository  sermon,  but  a  text- 
sermon.  The  exposition  of  some  passages,  particu- 
larly in  the  hands  of  some  men,  will  constantly  tend 
towards  this  form,  and  often  with  advantage.  But 
what  we  are  supposed  to  be  aiming  at,  is  a  strictly 
expository  sermon,  in  which  not  only  the  leading 
ideas  of  the  passage  are  brought  out,  but  its  details 
are  suitably  explained,  and  made  to  furnish  the  chief 
material  of  the  discourse.  In  order  to  manage  this, 
we  need  to  study  the  details  thoroughly,  so  as  to 
master  them,  instead  of  being  oppressed  by  them. 
We  thus,  too,  enter  more  fully  into  the  spirit  of  the 
passage,  as  the  musician  must  who  makes  varia- 
tions on  a  theme.  Then  we  must  select  and  group. 
Here  the  inexperienced  preacher  often  errs.  Having 
minutely  studied  the  details  of  the  passage,  and 
become  interested  in  them,  he  desires  to  remark 
upon  a  greater  number  of  points  than  the  limits  of 
his  discourse  will  allow.  Thus  it  becomes  so  crowded 
that  the  hearer  follows  with  annoying  difficulty,  and 


330        DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS. 

none  of  the  numerous  points  presented  have  time  to 
impress  themselves  upon  his  mind.  It  is  indispen- 
sable to  select.  Of  course  one  will  aim  to  choose 
such  details  as  especially  require  explanation,  and 
such  as  will  at  the  same  time  yield  important  or 
interesting  matter.  Often  points  of  no  great  in- 
trinsic importance,  slight  traits  in  the  narrative,  or 
minor  links  in  the  argument,  will  add  greatly  to 
the  vivacity  and  vigor  of  the  discourse.  Every  one 
knows  that  in  oratorical  description  we  must  seek 
the  kind  of  excellence  which  is  seen  in  certain 
descriptions  by  Demosthenes  and  Tacitus,  or  in 
Retzsch's  Outlines,  —  a  few  lines  and  touches,  but 
those  few  eminently  suggestive  and  stimulating  to 
the  imagination.^  Is  there  not  something  similar 
in  the  oratorical  exposition  of  an  argument }  Must 
we  not  labor,  besides  exhibiting  the  outlines,  the 
prominent  thoughts  of  our  passage,  to  choose  out 
those  details  which  will  cause  the  whole  argument 
to  stand  forth  in  its  completeness.?  Remember,  we 
are  not  preparing  a  commentary,  nor  a  dogmatic 
treatise,  but  an  expository  sermon,  and  the  whole 
treatment  must  be,  in  the  good  sense  of  that  word, 
oratorical.  In  this  respect,  as  in  everything  else 
pertaining  to  the  art  of  discourse,  practical  effort, 
controlled  by  just  principles,  will  not  fail  to  bring 
skill. 

A  mistake  sometimes  made  consists  in  the  unduly 
multiplied  and  extended  quotation  of  parallel  pas- 
sages.  Thus  the  details  of  the  text,  too  numerous 
themselves  perhaps  for  oratorical  purposes,  are  each 
surrounded  by  a  mass  of  other  passages,  and  the 
discourse  is  so  loaded  down  as  to  be  past  endurance. 
The  Lectures  of  McGhee  on  Ephesians,  which  are  in 

1  See  Phelps  on  Picturesque  Exposition,  Theory  of  Preaching, 
p.  165  f. 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.       331 

some  respects  good,  err  in  this  direction  very  sadly. 
It  is  a  fault  sometimes  observed  in  other  than  ex- 
pository sermons,  though  in  these  the  temptation  to 
it  is  particularly  great.  It  is  so  easy  for  a  preacher 
to  persuade  himself  that  he  is  putting  honor  upon 
Scripture,  by  quoting  thus  largely,  when  sometimes 
he  is  only  putting  honor  upon  his  own  indolence.^ 
Of  course,  judicious  quotation  from  other  parts  of 
Scripture  is  highly  appropriate  and  often  exceed- 
ingly valuable,  and  we  need  not  sympathize  with 
the  fastidiousness  of  Foster,  any  more  than  with  the 
opposite  extreme. 

There  is  also  danger  of  error  as  to  the  treatment  of 
difficult  passages  occurring  in  the  text.  The  preacher 
will,  of  course,  study  these  with  great  care,  for  he 
cannot  afford,  as  regards  his  personal  habits,  to  slide 
over  difficulties.  But  having  thus  become  much 
interested  in  this  difficult  portion  of  his  text,  hav- 
ing become  familiar  with  the  different  views  which 
have  been  suggested,  and  the  arguments  for  one  view 
and  against  another,  he  very  naturally  feels  disposed 
to  use  the  matter  so  laboriously  wrought  out,  to  dis- 
cuss the  question  which  appears  so  interesting.  In 
this  way  many  an  expository  sermon  has  been  ruined. 
True,  wherever  the  preacher  is  really  able  to  clear 
up  the  difficulty,  and  to  do  this  by  a  comparatively 
brief  and  evidently  satisfactory  explanation,  people 
will  be  glad  to  hear  it.  If  he  can  show  that  the  pas- 
sage, as  thus  explained,  presents  some  interesting 
and  valuable  truth,  they  will  be  delighted.  If  it  is 
a  passage  which  has  been  made  prominent  in  relig- 
ious controversies,  or  has  on  any  account  attracted 
extraordinary  attention,  they  might  even  like  to  hear 
something  of  the  process  by  which  this  satisfactory 
explanation  has  been  reached.  But  such  cases  are 
1  The  practice  is  well  satirized  by  Coquerel,  p.  69. 


332        DIFFERENT   SPECIES    OF   SERMONS. 

comparatively  rare ;  and,  in  general,  men  grow  weary 
of  a  long  discussion  of  some  quaestio  vexatissima  or 
locus  difficillimus.  If  the  preacher,  by  long  study 
and  a  brief  statement  of  the  results,  can  throw  any 
light  on  such  a  passage,  very  well;  but  the  long 
study  is  his  affair,  not  theirs.  This  is  only  one  of 
many  directions  in  which  preachers  are  apt  to  err, 
in  thinking  the  people  will  be  interested  by  every- 
thing that  interests  them.  And  then,  where  the 
result  of  his  researches  is  not  satisfactory,  where 
he  does  not  feel  that  he  can  make  the  matter  plain, 
let  the  preacher  merely  notice  that  there  is  a  diffi- 
culty here,  and  pass  on  to  speak  of  truths  which  the 
passage  certainly  does  teach,  to  handle  what  he  is 
confident  he  understands.^  It  is  a  complaint  often 
made  against  the  commentaries,  that  they  say  much 
about  the  easy  places,  and  little  about  the  hard  ones. 
Now  where  the  book  is  designed,  not  so  much  for 
explanation  as  for  comment,  in  the  strict  sense  of 
that  term  —  and  this  is  the  case  with  most  of  the 
older  works  —  it  is  obviously  proper  for  the  writer 
to  spend  his  time  in  developing  and  applying  the 
teachings  of  those  passages  which  he  understands. 
He  has  no  right  to  develop  and  apply  what  he  is  not 
confident  is  the  true  meaning.  Quite  similar  is  the 
case  of  the  expository  preacher.  To  state  at  great 
length  several  different  views  as  to  the  meaning  of 
a  passage,  without  being  able  to  show  cause  why  any 


1  A  celebrated  Professor  of  Greek  in  one  of  our  American  Uni- 
versities had  a  youthful  assistant,  who  was  one  day  unexpectedly 
called  on  to  meet  a  class,  without  having  read  over  the  lesson. 
When  asked  afterwards  how  he  had  got  through,  he  said,  "  I  just 
talked  about  what  I  understood,  and  let  alone  what  I  didn't.'* 
"  Pretty  good  plan,"  said  the  old  gentleman ;  "  I  suspect  you  had 
better  continue  to  do  that  as  long  as  you  live."  [Well  understood 
by  intimates  of  the  author  to  have  been  Dr.  Gessner  Harrison,  of  the 
University  of  Virginia,  and  himself.  —  D.j 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF  SERMONS.       333 

one  of  them  should  be  accepted  or  preferred,  and 
then  leave  the  matter  in  that  unsatisfactory  position, 
is  tiresome  in  a  book,  and  in  a  sermon  intolerable. 

In  the  progress  of  an  expository  discourse,  it  is 
often  desirable  to  keep  the  connection  of  the  whole 
text  before  the  minds  of  the  audience,  by  somewhat 
frequently  glancing  back,  as  we  proceed,  upon  the 
ground  already  traversed.  Chrysostom  sets  us  the 
example  of  managing  this  with  skill.  He  also  fre- 
quently throws  in  some  lively  question  as  to  what 
comes  next,  calculated  to  arouse  the  hearers,  and 
make  them  notice  it  when  stated.  Our  audiences, 
like  his,  do  not  commonly  have  the  sacred  text 
before  them,  and  we  must  strive  to  supply  the 
deficiency.  By  making  the  leading  thoughts  of  the 
text  quite  distinct,  by  skilfully  selecting  and  group- 
ing the  details,  and  by  glancing  backward  and  point* 
ing  forward  as  we  proceed,  this  serious  practical 
difficulty  can  be  to  a  great  extent  overcome. 

Much  pains  should  be  taken  to  point  out  and  apply 
the  lessons  which  the  text  may  afford.  The  people 
need,  and  desire,  to  have  these  distinctly  stated, 
unless  the  application  is  exceedingly  obvious.  It 
will  somewhat  frequently  be  more  convenient,  par- 
ticularly in  historical  exposition,  to  apply  each  divi- 
sion of  the  discourse  as  it  is  presented.  But  in 
many  cases  we  can  do  as  is  common  in  other  ser- 
mons, reserve  the  chief  practical  lessons  for  the  con- 
clusion. Of  course  such  lessons  must,  in  general, 
be  briefly  indicated,  as  so  much  time  is  needed  for 
exposition.  But  where  there  is  a  subject  of  special 
practical  importance,  it  may  be  discussed  and  urged 
at  length,  even  if  some  portions  of  the  text  have  to 
be  left  unexplained.  And  if  current  events,  or  the 
religious  condition  of  the  congregation,  should  make 
it  particularly  desirable  to  discuss  some  practical 


334        DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS. 

topic  which  the  text  does  not  naturally  suggest,  it 
may  be  introduced  in  the  way  of  remark,  or  of  remote 
application  of  some  general  truth  or  duty.  Here, 
again,  Chrysostom  presents  us  an  example.  Much 
as  he  delighted  in  explaining  Scripture,  he  yet  felt 
that,  in  preaching,  the  practical  interest  is  para- 
mount ;  and  he  not  only  points  out  many  lessons  by 
the  way,  but  is  almost  sure  to  find  some  practical 
subject  for  the  conclusion,  and  this  is  not  unfre- 
quently  treated  at  great  length.  Nor  does  he  trouble 
himself  much  as  to  the  association  of  ideas  by  which 
he  shall  reach  any  such  important  practical  matter, 
but  often  uses  a  freedom  which  critics  with  strict 
notions  of  what  we  call  "  sermonizing "  would  be 
likely  to  condemn.  In  his  sermon  on  the  Transfig- 
uration, for  example,  he  wants  to  bear  down  on  the 
money-lenders  there  at  Antioch,  and  reaches  them 
as  follows :  The  three  disciples  were  happy  in  see- 
ing Christ's  glory  on  the  mount  —  we  may  hope  to 
behold  him  in  a  more  splendid  glory  —  but  if  we 
wish  to  do  so  we  must  take  heed  what  manner  of 
lives  we  are  leading  —  we  must  not  do  this  and  that, 
must  not  oppress  the  poor  —  and  so  he  comes  to  the 
matter  of  charging  enormous  interest,  which  is  then 
discussed,  for  some  time,  with  vehement  denuncia- 
tion and  entreaty.  By  a  still  more  roundabout  process 
he  passes  from  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand  to  an 
earnest  attack  upon  the  elaborately  embroidered  and 
curiously  fashioned  sandals  which  were  then  the 
rage.  And  he  can  frequently  return  to  the  same 
subject,  if  it  seems  to  require  renewed  censure  or 
exhortation,  managing  to  bring  it  in  somehow.  In 
one  long  series  of  discourses  he  rarely  fails  to  inveigh 
against  profanity;  and  his  favorite  topic  of  alms- 
giving may  be  expected  to  recur  almost  anywhere, 
upon  the  slightest  provocation.     Now  in  all  this  his 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF  SERMONS.      335 

example  is  not  faultless,  certainly,  but  it  is  extremely 
instructive.  We  have  seen  that  there  is  to  be  desired 
a  much  greater  unity,  and  much  more  of  orderly 
structure  and  regular  progress  than  is  exhibited  in 
Chrysostom's  homilies.  But  the  strictest  notions  in 
this  direction  must  not  prevent  us  from  frequently 
and  freely  introducing  matters  of  practical  interest. 
In  this  way  the  people  will  be  led  to  listen  much 
more  attentively  to  our  explanations,  being  con- 
stantly on  the  lookout  for  some  practical  applica- 
tion to  themselves;  and  they  will  also  be  constantly 
reminded  of  what  men  are  so  prone  to  forget,  the 
intimate  relation  between  Scripture  truth  and  daily 
life.  Pastors  sometimes  shrink  from  undertaking  a 
series  of  expository  discourses,  from  the  fear  that 
they  will  not  be  able  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  pre- 
cise condition  and  wants,  week  after  week,  of  their 
people;  but  if  the  suggestions  just  made  be  acted 
upon,  there  will  in  this  respect  be  no  difficulty. 
Besides,  where  one  preaches  twice  every  Sunday, 
according  to  the  common  if  not  commendable  fashion 
of  the  present  day,  he  may  of  course  have  one  ser- 
mon free  for  as  much  variety  of  specific  adaptation 
as  he  pleases. 

If  the  suggestions  which  have  been  offered  are 
well  founded,  it  will  be  obvious  that  expository 
preaching  is  a  difficult  task.  It  requires  much  close 
study  of  Scripture  in  general,  and  much  special  study 
of  the  particular  passage  to  be  treated.  To  make  a 
discourse  which  shall  be  explanatory  and  yet  truly 
oratorical,  bearing  a  rich  mass  of  details  but  not 
burdened  with  them,  full  of  Scripture  and  abound- 
ing in  practical  applications,  to  bring  even  dull, 
uninformed,  and  unspiritual  minds  into  interested 
and  profitable  contact  with  an  extended  portion  of 
the  Bible  —  of  course  this  must  be  difficult.     One 


336        DIFFERENT  SPECIES   OF  SERMONS. 

cannot  say  then,  as  is  often  said,  try  expository 
preaching  first  on  week-nights,  till  you  and  the 
people  become  accustomed  to  it.  Nay,  try  it  now 
and  then  for  your  principal  sermon  on  Sunday,  with- 
out mentioning  that  you  are  about  to  do  anything 
unusual,  and  lay  out  your  best  strength  upon  an 
earnest  effort  to  make  it  at  once  instructive,  inter- 
esting, and  impressive.  Then  you  and  the  people 
will  gradually  become  accustomed  to  expository 
preaching  as  it  should  be.  After  repeating,  more  or 
less  frequently,  such  occasional  efforts,  you  will 
know  how  to  prepare  for  an  expository  series.  He 
who  begins  it  as  an  easy  thing  will  find  expository 
preaching  surpassingly  difficult;  but  he  who  man- 
fully takes  hold  of  it  as  difficult,  will  find  it  grow 
easier  and  more  pleasant  with  every  year  of  his 
experience.  Not  every  man  will  find  the  expository 
method  best  suited  to  his  mental  endowments.  But 
every  one  ought  to  acquire  the  power  of  employing 
it  with  skill  and  success.  Then,  though  it  be  better 
for  this  or  that  man  to  preach  for  the  most  part  in 
other  ways,  he  may  continue  to  introduce  expository 
sermons  now  and  then,  and  may  also  infuse  a  larger 
expository  element  into  many  of  his  textual  and 
topical  sermons.  And  it  maybe  confidently  asserted 
that  many  a  one  who  now  thinks  this  method  of 
preaching  unsuited  to  him,  needs  nothing  but  dili- 
gent study  and  practice,  upon  some  such  principles 
as  have  been  indicated,  to  make  his  expository  ser- 
mons very  profitable  to  his  hearers,  and  singularly 
delightful  to  himself. 

Note.  —  One  who  wishes  to  cultivate  himself  as  an  expository 
preacher  will  of  course  be  disposed  to  search  the  literature  of  the 
pulpit  for  good  examples  of  that  species  of  sermons.  It  may  there, 
fore  be  worth  while  to  mention  some  specimens  which  it  would  be 
instructive  to  study,  selecting  such  as  are  easily  accessible. 

First,  a  few  good    expository  sermons  on  detached   passages. 


DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF   SERMONS.       337 

Monod  on  the  "Woman  of  Canaan"  (Fish's  "Select  Discourses 
from  the  French  and  German  "),  is  good.  Dr.  J.  Addison  Alexander 
on  Titus  ii.  11-15  (Sermons,  Vol.  I.),  is  an  admirable  specimen  of 
doctrinal  and  practical  exposition.  Dr.  R.  Fuller's  discourses  on  the 
"  Walk  to  Emmaus,"  and  on  the  "  Three  Hebrews  in  the  Furnace  " 
(Sermons),  are  very  fine.  Dr.  Wayland's  "Day  in  the  Life  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,"  and  "  Fall  of  Peter"  (Sermons  on  Salvation  by  Christ), 
are  of  remarkable  excellence.  Spurgeon  on  the  "Blind  Beggar" 
(Sermons,  Vol.  VI.),  is  more  distinctly  expository  than  is  common  in 
his  sermons. 

Passing  to  specimens  of  continuous  or  connected  exposition,  we 
mention  the  following  as  chiefly  historical.  Krummacher's  "  Elijah 
the  Tishbite  "  is  hardly  equalled  by  any  of  his  later  volumes  except 
his  "  David."  The  "  Friends  of  Christ,"  by  Dr.  N.  Adams,  is  a  capi- 
tal volume.  Blunt's  "  Lectures  on  the  History  of  our  Saviour  "  form 
a  good  example  for  most  of  us,  because  they  are  interesting  and 
profitable,  while  not  exhibiting  remarkable  abilities.  Monod's  "  Five 
Sermons  on  the  Apostle  Paul"  ought  by  all  means  to  be  studied. 
More  distinctly  expository  than  these,  and  among  the  most  instructive 
and  charming  specimens  of  their  class  in  our  recent  literature,  are 
Hanna's  "Lectures  on  the  Life  of  Christ."  Dr.  W.  M.  Taylor  has 
a  number  of  admirable  volumes  of  historical  exposition,  "  Moses  the 
Lawgiver,"  "  David,"  "  Paul  the  Apostle,"  and  others. 

And  the  following  are  chiefly  doctrinal  or  preceptive,  Chalmers  on 
Romans  is  eminently  worthy  of  study,  and  is  most  instructive  to 
those  who  are  best  acquainted  with  his  other  sermons,  and  his 
peculiar  cast  of  mind.  Leighton  on  i  Peter  is  famous,  and  of  a 
beautiful  spirit.  Luther  on  Galatians  is  highly  interesting  and 
instructive,  and  is  perhaps  the  best  specimen  remaining  of  those 
powerful  expository  sermons  by  which  he  wrought  so  great  a  work. 
Cumming's  volumes,  as  on  Revelation,  on  Daniel,  on  the  Parables, 
etc.,  are,  whatever  one  may  think  of  his  peculiar  opinions,  excellent 
models  of  easy,  agreeable,  and  attractive  popular  exposition.  Some 
of  the  sermons  of  F.  W.  Robertson,  as  well  as  his  volume  on  Corin- 
thians, are  admirable  specimens  of  a  certain  kind  of  exposition ; 
though  one  cannot  be  too  careful,  in  reading  any  of  his  works,  to 
guard  against  his  grievous  errors  as  to  inspiration  and  atonement. 
Ryle's  "Expository  Thoughts  on  the  Gospels"  (several  volumes), 
contain  only  the  substance  of  sermons,  not  written  out  in  full,  but 
they  are  very  useful  for  our  purpose.  Dr.  W.  M.  Taylor  has  an  excel- 
lent volume  on  the  Parables  of  our  Lord.  There  are  also  good  ex- 
pository sermons  by  Candlish,  Vaughan,  Johnstone,  Joseph  Parker, 
G.  D.  Boardman,  and  many  others.  Many  of  Maclaren's  sermons  are 
rich  in  exposition ;  and  those  of  F.  B.  Meyer,  while  not  profound,  are 
very  devotional  and  helpful. 

The  most  instructive  example,  however,  of  expository  discourse, 
both  doctrinal  and  historical,  is  the  Homilies  of  Chrysostom.    While 


338        DIFFERENT   SPECIES   OF    SERMONS. 

no  man  of  sense  would  think  of  making  discourses  now  precisely  on  the 
model  of  his,  it  is  remarkable  how  much  may  be  learned  from  them 
as  to  the  skilful,  spirited,  and  effective  management  of  expository 
preaching.  Those  who  have  not  access  to,  or  cannot  read  his  works 
in  the  original,  would  find  it  desirable  to  procure  a  translation,  such 
as  is  contained  in  the  Oxford  Library  of  the  Fathers,  or^  better  still, 
in  the  translations  published  by  the  Christian  Literature  Company, 
New  York.  Profound  students  of  his  works  consider  the  best  of 
his  Homilies  to  be  those  on  the  Psalms  and  on  Matthew.  In  the 
former  there  is  necessarily  much  erroneous  interpretation,  since  he 
knew  no  Hebrew,  and  had  to  rely  on  the  Septuagint,  which  in  the 
Psalms  is  full  of  errors.  The  volumes  on  Matthew  are  therefore 
probably  the  most  valuable  for  our  purpose,  and  these  can  be  ob- 
tained at  no  great  cost.  One  who  knows  how  much  interest  Andrew 
Fuller  and  Robert  Hall  took  in  expository  preaching,  would  expect 
to  find  profitable  examples  in  their  works.  But  he  would  be  dis- 
appointed. Fuller's  published  expositions  on  Genesis  and  on  Reve- 
lation contain  the  substance  of  sermons,  and  comprise  much  judicious 
interpretation  and  sound  thinking ;  but  they  give  us  very  little  infor- 
mation as  to  the  form  of  his  discourses,  and  none  at  all  as  to  his 
management  of  details.  Still  less  to  the  purpose  is  the  report  of 
Hall's  sermons  on  Philippians.  The  copious  Homiletical  and  Prac- 
tical notes  in  Lange's  Commentaries  may  be  found  profitable  in 
expository  preaching  by  those  who  take  pains  to  use  them  wisely. 

Some  of  the  works  in  this  brief  list  might  not  be  regarded  as 
expository  sermons,  according  to  the  common  use  of  that  phrase. 
But  we  are  here  claiming  for  it  a  wider  range  than  is  common,  and 
have  insisted  that  this  method  of  preaching  often  approximates 
closely  to  the  other  methods. 


t^att  III. 

STYLE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  STYLE.^ 


§  I.  Nature  and  Importance  of  Style.     §  2.   Means  of 
Improving  Style. 


§  I.    NATURE  AND   IMPORTANCE  OF   STYLE. 

WE  frequently  say  of  a  writer,  that  he  wields  a 
ready,  an  elegant,  or  a  caustic  pen.  In  like 
manner  the  stylus,  the  pointed  iron  instrument  with 
which  the  Romans  wrote  upon  their  tablets  covered 
with  wax,  is  often  employed  by  Cicero  to  denote  the 
manner  of  writing,  the  manner  of  expressing  one's 
thoughts  in  writing,  and  at  a  later  period  was  very  nat- 
urally extended  to  speaking.  In  modern  times  the  use 
has  been  still  further  extended  by  analogy,  to  the  fine 

1  Besides  the  general  treatises  on  Rhetoric  and  Homiletics,  on 
Composition,  on  Grammar,  and  on  the  Science  of  Language,  the 
student  will  find  valuable  observations  in  the  Essays  on  Style  by 
De  Quincey,  Bulwer  (Caxtoniana),  and  Herbert  Spencer  (Essays, 
New  York,  Appleton),  and  in  Henry  Rogers  on  Sacred  Eloquence 
(Reason  and  Faith,  and  Other  Essays;  originally  in  Edinburgh  Re- 
view, October,  1840).  Phelps' English  Style  in  Public  Discourse  is 
a  very  useful  and  excellent  treatise,  being  in  part  a  continuation  of 
his  Theory  of  Preaching,  which  does  not  treat  of  Style.  Princi- 
ples of  Written  Discourse,  by  Prof.  T.  W.  Hunt  of  Princeton,  is  a 
good  book ;  likewise  English  Prose,  by  Prof.  John  Earle,  of  Oxford 
University. 


340     GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE. 

arts,  to  dress,  and  a  great  variety  of  matters.  A  man's 
style,  then,  is  his  characteristic  manner  of  expressing 
his  thoughts,  whether  in  writing  or  in  speech. 

Every  one  has  his  own  handwriting,  if  he  writes  at 
all  easily  and  well.  Any  early  imitation  of  a  "  copy  " 
will  soon  be  merged  in  his  own  individual  style  of 
writing,  —  as  in  this  sense  also  we  still  call  it.  And  so 
in  the  higher  sense,  every  one  has  his  own  style.  The 
most  slavish  imitation  could  not  be  perfect;  the  man's 
own  character  will  sometimes,  in  spite  of  him,  mod- 
ify his  style.  No  writer  on  the  subject  fails  to  quote 
the  saying  of  Buffon,  "  The  style  is  the  man."  This 
saying  Buffon  himself  curiously  illustrated,  for  his 
style  is  marked  by  a  stately  and  elaborate  elegance, 
and  it  is  said  that  he  could  not  write  well  unless  he 
was  in  full  dress.  To  the  same  effect  Landor  said, 
"  Language  is  a  part  of  a  man's  character ;  "  ^  and 
Lessing,  "  Every  man  should  have  his  own  style  as 
he  has  his  own  nose."  ^  But  here,  as  everywhere  else, 
that  which  is  most  characteristic  in  a  man  may  be 
disciplined  and  indefinitely  improved,  without  losing 
individuality. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  term  *'  style,"  as  figu- 
ratively denoting  one's  manner  of  expressing  his 
thoughts,  should  be  used  in  different  cases  with  a 
very  different  extent  of  meaning.  It  is  sometimes 
taken  to  include  arrangement,  even  that  of  an  entire 
treatise  or  discourse ;  and  there  can  certainly  be  no 
absolute  distinction  made  between  the  arrangement 
of  sentences  and  paragraphs,  and  that  of  the  dis- 
course. Commonly,  however,  the  general  arrange- 
ment is  not  included  in  the  term.  On  the  other  hand, 
style  is  sometimes  distinguished  from  diction,  the  lat- 
ter then  denoting  one's  vocabulary,  the  character  of 
the  words  and  particular  phrases  which  he  employs, 
1  Hoppin,  p.  585.  2  Haven's  Rhet.  p.  241. 


GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE.     341 

while  the  former  would  include  everything  else  be- 
longing to  his  mode  of  expressing  thought.  But 
it  is  best,  according  to  the  usual  practice,  to  include 
diction  as  a  part  of  style. 

Thus  understood,  style  is  obviously  a  matter  of  very 
great  importance.  A  man's  style  cannot  be  sepa- 
rated from  his  modes  of  thought,  from  his  whole 
mental  character.  The  natural  and  common  image 
by  which  we  call  it  the  dress  of  thought,  is  very  apt 
to  mislead  ;  for  style,  as  Wordsworth  forcibly  says,  is 
not  the  mere  dress,  it  is  the  incarnation  of  thought. 
We  know  another's  thoughts,  only  as  thus  revealed, 
thus  incarnate.^  Aristotle,  it  is  true,  speaks  slight- 
ingly of  style,  as  a  subject  recently  introduced  into 
treatises  of  rhetoric,  which  it  is  to  some  little  ex- 
tent necessary  to  consider  in  every  system  of  in- 
struction, though  the  proof  is  the  main  thing.'^  His 
practice  accords  with  this  opinion,  for  his  own  style 
is  not  only  careless  and  harsh,  but  often  vexatiously 
obscure.  And  yet  there  were  already  in  his  language 
many  noble  specimens  of  style,  in  poetry,  history,  ora- 
tory, which  have  never  been  surpassed;  so  true  is  it 
in  Rhetoric  that  just  theory  follows  excellent  practice.^ 
It  is  only  a  few  men  whose  matter  is  so  surpassingly 
valuable  as  to  be  highly  prized,  like  Aristotle's,  not- 
withstanding great  faults  of  style.  The  speakers  and 
writers  who  have  been  widely  and  permanently  influ- 
ential, have  usually  accomplished  it  by  good  thoughts 
well  expressed.  Often,  indeed,  excellence  of  style  has 
given  a  wide  and  lasting  popularity  to  works  which 
had  little  other  merit.  Goldsmith's  Histories  long  held 
their  place  in  many  schools,  because  so  charmingly 

1  See  also  Day,  p.  213.  2  Arist.  Rhet  IIL  i. 

3  Cicero  says  (Orator,  16)  that  "when  one  has  found  out  what  to 
say  and  in  what  order,  there  still  remains  by  far  the  greatest  things 
namely,  how  to  say  it ; "  but  in  this  he  includes  style  and  delivery. 


342     GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE. 

written,  though  they  were  inaccurate  and  very  poorly 
represented  the  historical  attainments  of  their  own 
age.  The  widespread,  though  short-lived  popularity 
gained  by  Renan's  fanciful  "  Life  of  Jesus,"  was  due 
not  merely  to  the  sensational  character  of  its  con- 
tents, but  very  largely  also  to  the  extreme  beauty  of 
the  style,  particularly  in  the  original  French.  When  a 
student  at  a  Jesuit  College,  Renan  paid  great  attention 
to  the  cultivation  of  his  style,  and  afterwards  devoted 
himself  mainly  to  the  study  of  language  and  litera- 
ture. In  like  manner  science  has  in  many  cases 
gained  a  just  appreciation  only  when  recommended 
by  a  pleasing  style.  This  was  what  Buffon  did  for 
Natural  History.  The  popularity  of  Geology  was 
immensely  increased  among  the  English-speaking 
peoples  by  Hugh  Miller,  through  his  marvellous 
powers  of  description  and  the  general  freshness  and 
animation  of  his  style.  And  so  it  was  later  with 
Agassiz,  and  Huxley,  and  Tyndall.  Such  facts  go  to 
show  that  style  is  not  a  thing  of  mere  ornament. 
Style  is  the  glitter  and  polish  of  the  warrior's  sword, 
but  is  also  its  keen  edge.  It  can  render  mediocrity 
acceptable  and  even  attractive,  and  power  more  pow- 
erful still.  It  can  make  error  seductive,  while  truth 
may  lie  unnoticed  for  want  of  its  aid.  Shall  religious 
teachers  neglect  so  powerful  a  means  of  usefulness? 
True,  Paul  says,  **  My  speech  and  my  preaching 
were  not  with  persuasive  words  of  man's  wisdom."  ^ 
He  refused  to  deal  in  the  would-be  philosophy  and 
the  sensational  and  meretricious  rhetoric  which  were 
so  popular  in  that  rapidly  growing  commercial  city; 
but  his  style  is  a  model  of  passionate  energy,  and 
rises  upon  occasion  into  an  inartificial  and  exquisite 
beauty.^ 

1  I  Cor.  ii.  4. 

2  Witness  in  this  same  Epistle,  chapter  xiii.  and  chapter  xv. 


GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE.     343 

Yet  style  is  in  this  country  much  neglected.  The 
French  surpass  all  other  modern  nations,  in  respect 
of  perspicuity,  elegance,  and  animation,  if  not  energy. 
The  cultivated  English  come  next  to  them  in  finish  of 
style,  and  surpass  them  in  power.  The  English  Uni- 
versity training,  with  all  its  defects,  has  in  this  respect 
produced  noble  results,  as  may  be  seen  not  only  in 
the  great  Parliamentary  orators  and  the  admirable 
newspaper  writing  which  England  boasts,  but  also  in 
preachers.  The  famous  Oxford  Tracts  would  not  have 
been  so  influential  but  for  their  admirable  style.  The 
sermons  of  J.  H.  Newman,  Robertson,  Liddon,  and 
Bishop  Wilberforce  are  in  this  respect  greatly  to  be 
admired.  And  the  England  of  this  century  has 
credit  for  Robert  Hall.  The  style  of  German  prose, 
with  a  few  grand  exceptions,^  has  generally  been  very 
bad,  particularly  among  religious  writers.  They  have 
apparently  recognized  no  obligation  to  compel  the 
hearer  or  reader  to  understand  them,  or  even  to  help 
him  in  doing  so,  but  have  aimed  merely  to  express 
the  thought  in  a  form  intelligible  to  themselves,  with- 
out considering  how  it  would  be  with  others.^  That 
is  to  say,  they  have  sought  subjective  excellence  of 
style,  and  not  objective.  But  there  seems  to  be  at 
present  a  rapidly  increasing  number  of  German  speak- 
ers and  writers  whose  style  is  marked  by  perspicuity 
and  grace,  without  sacrificing  Teutonic  profundity  and 
strength.  In  America  we  have  a  growing  number  of 
writers  and  speakers,  both  secular  and  religious,  who 
can  be  held  up  as  models.  But  in  general  we  fall 
seriously  below  the  English.  An  extreme  negligence 
and  looseness  of  style  very  generally  prevails.  And 
the  great  American  fault,  in  speaking  and  writing,  is 
an  excessive  vehemence,  a  constant  effort  to  be  strik* 

1  Goethe's  prose  style  is  scarcely  surpassed  in  any  language. 

2  Comp.  Quintilian,  VIIL  2,  19. 


344     GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS    ON   STYLE. 

ing.  Our  style,  as  well  as  our  delivery,  too  often 
lacks  the  calmness  of  conscious  strength,  the  repose 
of  simple  sincerity,  the  quiet  earnestness  which  only 
now  and  then  becomes  impassioned.  "He  will  be 
an  eloquent  man  who  shall  be  able  to  speak  of  small 
matters  in  lowly  phrase,  of  ordinary  topics  temper- 
ately, of  great  subjects  with  passion  and  power."^ 

One  cause  of  this  neglect  of  style  among  us,  and 
tp  some  extent  in  England  also,  is  the  failure  to 
understand  its  inseparable  connection  with  the 
thought  conveyed.  De  Quincey  says,  "  Here  our 
quarrel  is  coextensive  with  that  general  principle  in 
England,  which  tends  in  all  things  to  set  the  matter 
above  the  manner,  the  substance  above  the  external 
show;  a  principle  noble  in  itself,  but  inevitably  wrong 
wherever  the  manner  blends  inseparably  with  the 
substance."  ^  The  best  style  attracts  least  attention 
to  itself,  and  none  but  the  critical  observer  is  apt  to 
appreciate  its  excellence,  most  men  giving  credit 
solely  to  the  matter,  and  having  no  idea  how  much 
the  manner  has  contributed  to  attract  and  impress 
them.  The  thought  is  certainly  the  main  thing;  but 
the  style  also  is  important.  "  The  experience  of  all 
times,  and  the  testimony  of  all  teachers,  present  to 
us  as  inseparable,  these  two  propositions:  (i)  That 
we  must  not  flatter  ourselves  that  we  shall  have  a 
good  style,  without  an  interesting  fund  of  ideas. 
(2)  That  even  with  an  interesting  and  substantial 
supply  of  ideas,  we  must  not  flatter  ourselves  that 
style  will  come  of  itself."  ^ 

It  follows  from  all  this  that  every  writer  and  speaker 
should  pay  great  attention  to  the  improvement  of  his 
style.  High  excellence  in  style  is  necessarily  rare ; 
for  a  discourse,  a  paragraph,  even  a  sentence,  is 
really  a  work  of  art,  fashioned  by  constructive  im- 

1  Cicero,  Orator,  29.        2  On  Style,  p.  66.        ^  Vinet,  p.  353. 


GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE.     345 

agination  —  and  artist-gifts  of  every  kind  are  rare. 
But  any  man  who  will  try,  long  enough  and  hard 
enough,  can  learn  to  say  what  he  means,  to  say 
forcibly  what  he  deeply  feels,  and  to  clothe  his 
thoughts  in  a  garb  at  least  of  homely  neatness. 
Some  of  the  best  writers  and  speakers  have  had 
peculiar  difficulty  in  acquiring  a  good  style,  e.  g. 
John  Foster;  and  their  success  affords  encourage- 
ment to  us  all. 


§  2.      MEANS  OF  IMPROVING  STYLE. 

Oratorical  style  is  but  one  out  of  many  species  of 
style,  and  one  variety  of  the  oratorical  style  is  that  of 
the  pulpit.  Yet  a  man's  characteristic  style  will  be 
essentially  the  same,  in  all  kinds  of  writing  and 
speaking;  and  mental  cultivation  should  never  be 
confined  to  the  sphere  of  one's  chief  mental  activity. 
We  are  therefore  to  consider  the  means  of  improve- 
ment, not  merely  as  regards  that  which  is  peculiar 
to  oratory,  but  as  regards  style  in  general. 

(i)  The  study  of  language,  particularly  of  our  own 
language,  is  in  this  respect  exceedingly  profitable. 
The  science  of  language,  which  within  this  century 
has  accomplished  so  much,  and  which  is  now  making 
such  rapid  progress,  cannot  be  considered  inferior,  in 
point  of  interest  and  instructiveness,  to  any  other  of 
the  sciences.  But  the  study  of  the  science  as  such, 
has  only  an  indirect  bearing  on  style ;  it  is  the  prac- 
tical acquisition  of  languages  that  is  here  the  great 
source  of  benefit.^    This,  when  pursued  with  system, 

1  Home  Tooke,  in  that  inaccurate  and  peculiar  but  very  entertain- 
ing work,  Diversions  of  Purley,  quotes  old  Roger  Ascham,  the  pre- 
ceptor of  Queen  Elizabeth,  as  saying :  "  Even  as  a  hawke  fleeth  not 
hie  with  one  wing ;  even  so  a  man  reacheth  not  to  excellency  with  one 
tongue."    And  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  is,  on  the  authority  of  Bran* 


346     GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE. 

and  on  sound  principles,  compels  close  attention  to 
the  nature  of  language  in  general,  to  the  history, 
changes,  and  capacities  of  words,  and  the  relation  of 
syntactical  construction  to  the  different  forms  and 
processes  of  thought.  It  also  attracts  to  the  pecu- 
liarities of  our  own  language  a  keener  and  more  in- 
telligent notice  than  most  persons  would  otherwise 
bestow.  These  benefits  are  more  or  less  derived 
from  the  study  of  any  language  whatsoever.  There 
is  peculiar  advantage  in  choosing  French  or  German, 
because  they  correspond  to  the  two  great  elements 
of  which  our  own  language  is  chiefly  composed. 
But  the  time-honored  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  is 
more  advantageous  still.  In  their  inflections,  their 
syntax,  their  prose  rhythm,  these  languages  exhibit 
the  full  and  instructive  development  of  excellencies 
which  English,  French,  German  possess  only  in 
part.  We  have  recourse  to  them  as  geologists 
explain  outlying  rocks  or  scattered  fossils,  by  com- 
paring them  with  beds  in  which  similar  specimens 
lie  side  by  side  with  others  to  which  they  are  related. 
This  careful  study  of  other  languages  is  not  only 
useful  as  a  part  of  the  speaker's  early  training,  but 
ought,  so  far  as  possible,  to  be  kept  up  through  life. 
It  has  been  thus  kept  up  by  a  very  large  proportion 
of  those  who  have  attained  great  excellence  of  style. 
But  whether  acquainted  or  not  with  other  lan- 
guages, a  man  must  earnestly  study  his  own.  It  is 
very  encouraging  to  observe  the  now  rapidly  increas- 
ing attention  to  the  English  Language  in  our  best 
high-schools,  colleges,  and  universities.  Apart  from 
its  incomparable  practical  importance  to  us,  the 
English  is  in  itself  a  worthy   study,  a  most   noble 

t6me,  credited  with  the  sage  remark :  "  Autant  de  tansies  que  Phomme 
salt  purler,  autant  de  fois  est-il  homme  "  i.e.,  as  many  languages  a^  a 
man  can  speak,  so  many  times  is  he  a  man. 


GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE.     347 

tongue.  Foreigners  naturally  complain  much  of 
those  irregularities  in  spelling  and  pronunciation, 
which  have  been  almost  necessarily  produced  by 
the  union  of  two  diverse  languages  into  one.  Critics 
at  home  can  easily  point  out  its  weakness,  and  com- 
pare it  unfavorably,  in  this  or  that  respect,  with  some 
other  idiom.  But  set  against  all  this  the  words  of  a 
great  German  scholar,  the  foremost  among  all  students 
of  the  Gothic  family  of  languages.  **The  English 
language,  which  by  no  mere  accident  has  produced 
and  upborne  the  greatest  and  most  predominant  poet 
of  modern  times,  may  with  all  right  be  called  a  world- 
language  ;  and  like  the  English  people,  appears  des- 
tined hereafter  to  prevail  with  a  sway  more  extensive 
even  than  its  present  over  all  portions  of  the  globe. 
For  in  wealth,  good  sense,  and  closeness  of  structure, 
no  other  of  the  languages  at  this  day  spoken  deserves 
to  be  compared  with  it  —  not  even  our  German, 
which  is  torn,  even  as  we  are  torn,  and  must  first  rid 
itself  of  many  defects,  before  it  can  enter  boldly  into 
the  lists,  as  a  competitor  with  the  English."  ^  It  is  not 
like  Italian  for  music,  nor  like  French  for  conversa- 
tion, nor  like  German  as  to  facility  in  forming  new 
compounds,  but  taken  all  in  all,  for  history,  poetry, 
philosophy,  oratory,  for  society,  and  for  business,  it 
is  at  present  unequalled.  A  popular  writer  has  re- 
cently called  it  '*  the  grammarless  tongue ;  "  but  Eng- 
lish has  a  grammar,  a  very  regular  syntax,  and  one 
that  is  often  and  flagrantly  violated,  even  by  able  and 
cultivated  men.  De  Quincey  declares :  "  It  makes 
us  blush  to  add,  that  even  grammar  is  so  little  of  a 
perfect  attainment  amongst  us,  that  with  two  or  three 
exceptions,  (one  being  Shakespeare,  whom  some 
affect  to  consider  as  belonging  to  a  semi-barbarous 
age)  we  have  never  seen  the  writer,  through  a  circuit 
1  Jacob  Grimm,  quoted  by  Trench  and  Angua 


34B     GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON    STYLE. 

of  prodigious  reading,  who  has  not  sometimes  vio- 
lated the  accidence  or  the  syntax  of  English 
grammar."  ^ 

The  most  scientific  works  on  English  Grammar 
have  to  be  sought  in  German,  —  a  reproach  to  the 
English-speaking  people  which  ought  to  cease.^  Per- 
sons who  have  been  carefully  drilled  in  Greek  and 
Latin,  especially  by  written  translations  from  English 
into  those  languages  and  from  them  into  English, 
usually  feel  that  they  have  no  use  for  the  common 
treatises  on  English  Grammar.  Yet  we  have  many 
books  which  even  scholars  may  examine  with  profit, 
and  which  students  in  general  would  find  very  use- 
ful.^ It  is  true  that  books  on  grammar  are  not  every- 
thing in  acquiring  command  of  the  language,  nor  the 
main  thing.  There  are  men  among  us  who  have 
studied  no  such  books,  nor  any  other  language,  and 
yet  who  speak  and  write  English  with  correctness  and 
even  with  force  and  beauty.    The  great  works  of  Greek 

1  De  Quincey  on  Style,  p.  105. 

2  A  Professor  in  one  of  our  leading  American  Universities,  though 
a  man  of  vast  acquirements,  had  never  studied  German.  In  history, 
in  general  literature,  even  in  metaphysical  philosophy,  he  was  content 
with  what  could  be  found  in  Greek  and  Latin,  in  French  and  English. 
But  at  length,  determining  to  make  a  thorough  study  of  English 
Grammar,  he  was  compelled  to  learn  German. 

3  For  example,  Angus'  Handbook  of  the  English  Tongue  is  ex- 
cellent. Add  to  it  Trench  on  the  Study  of  Words,  and  his  English, 
Past  and  Present.  And  by  all  means  read  Campbell's  Philosophy 
of  Rhetoric,  Book  II.  chapters  i.-iv.,  and  Book  III.  chapters 
iv.,  v.,  in  which  he  treats  of  grammar.  Every  student  ought  to  keep 
constantly  within  reach,  and  very  freely  to  consult,  the  latest  edition 
of  some  one  of  the  great  English  Dictionaries, — Worcester,  Stor- 
month,  the  Standard,  or  the  International,  as  Webster's  is  now 
called.  One  who  wishes  to  get  some  knowledge  of  the  modern 
science  of  language  in  its  bearings  on  English,  should  read  Whitney's 
Language  and  the  Study  of  Language,  and  Max  Miiller's  two  vol- 
umes on  the  Science  of  Language,  and  then  take  Marsh's  Lectures  on 
the  English  Language.  For  other  books,  see  the  Bibliography  at  the 
end  of  this  work. 


GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON    STYLE.     349 

poetry  and  history  were  written  before  any  treatises 
on  grammar  existed.  These  facts  remind  us  that  we 
must  find  elsewhere  the  principal  means  of  improve- 
ment in  style,  but  they  by  no  means  prove  that 
grammars  are  useless.  We  have  to  learn  the  usage 
of  the  language,  and  grammars  undertake  to  present 
this  usage  in  a  systematic  and  convenient  form. 
They  show  us  our  faults,  and  warn  us  where  there  is 
danger;  they  set  us  to  observing  language,  and  re- 
flecting upon  it.  The  rules  of  grammar  have  most 
effectually  done  their  work  when  conformity  to  them 
has  become  habitual,  and  we  need  the  rules  no 
longer,  —  yea,  when  we  have  so  fully  entered  into  the 
principles  involved,  that  upon  occasion  we  may  even 
violate  a  rule.^  Correct  habits  may  be  formed,  and 
right  principles  comprehended,  without  books  of 
grammar,  but  more  rapidly  and  surely  with  them, 
provided  we  use  them  only  as  helps,  and  aim  to  go 
deeper  than  they  can  carry  us.  As  to  this  whole 
matter  of  studying  English  Grammar,  two  practical 
errors  widely  prevail,  and  greatly  need  to  be  cor- 
rected. Men  who  have  been  to  College  are  apt  to 
think  they  have  no  need  to  study  their  own  language 
at  all,  and  especially  no  need  of  consulting  books  on 
the  subject,  —  the  latter  part  of  this  opinion  being  a 
mistake,  and  the  former  a  very  great  mistake.  On 
the  other  hand,  men  who  have  had  fewer  educational 
advantages  are  in  danger  of  supposing  that  without 
systematic  instruction  they  can  do  nothing  to  improve 
their  style,  or  else  that  after  studying  a  book  or  two 
on  English  Grammar,  they  have  nothing  more  to  do.^ 
It  may  be  remarked  in  general  that  a  preacher 
ought  to  employ  pure  English,  according  to  current 
use;  not  quickly  catching  up   the   novelties  of  the 

1  Comp.  as  to  the  rules  of  Rhetoric,  above,  Introduction,  §  4. 
*  On  the  importance  of  studying  Anglo-Saxon,  see  below,  chap,  ii 


350     GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE. 

Street  or  the  daily  paper,  and  not  introducing  those 
archaisms  with  which  he  is  familiar  from  commerce 
with  old  books,  but  which  his  hearers  would  not 
readily  understand.  He  should  speak  the  English  of 
general  use,  not  employing  local  peculiarities  of 
phrase  except  for  special  reason;  but  he  should 
retain  genuine  English  idiom,  even  where  superficial 
critics  attempt  to  displace  it.  The  preacher  must 
never  invent  words.  Madame  de  Stael  says,  "  There 
is  in  general  no  surer  symptom  of  barrenness  of 
ideas  than  the  invention  of  words,"  —  a  remark  which 
may  at  least  be  set  over  against  the  notion  that  such 
invention  is  a  symptom  of  originality.  And  he 
should  not,  save  in  very  peculiar  cases,  employ  words 
or  phrases  from  foreign  languages.  It  was  once 
very  common,  and  thought  to  be  very  appropriate, 
for  a  minister  to  quote  much  Latin  and  Greek  in  his 
sermons.  Even  Wesley's  sermons  abound  in  such 
quotations,  though  he  preached  mainly  to  the  com- 
mon people.  It  is  a  sign  of  improved  taste  that  this 
is  no  longer  the  practice.  A  speaker  must  now  use 
his  knowledge  of  other  languages  only  as  giving  him 
increased  power  over  his  own  language.  Even  where 
one  refers  to  the  original  Scriptures,  it  is  very  rarely 
proper  to  mention  the  Greek  or  Hebrew  word. 

(2)  The  study  of  literature  perhaps  contributes 
still  more  to  the  improvement  of  style,  than  the  direct 
study  of  language.  From  reading  we  gain  much  in 
the  knowledge  of  language,  especially  as  to  richness 
of  vocabulary,  fulness  of  expression.^  But  more.  It 
is  chiefly  by  reading  that  we  form  our  literary  taste,  — 
a  matter  of  unspeakable  importance.  Cicero  makes 
one  of  his  characters  say,  referring  to  Greek  litera- 
ture :  "  As,  when  I  walk  in  the  sun,  even  though  I 

1  Kossuth  derived  his  wonderful  knowledge  of  English  from  the 
study  of  Shakespeare,  while  in  prisoa 


GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE.     35 1 

walk  for  another  reason,  my  complexion  is  yet 
colored;  so,  when  I  have  read  these  books,  I  feel 
that  my  style  of  speaking  is  as  it  were  colored  by 
their  influence."  ^  And  what  Shakespeare  mournfully 
says,  is  true  in  this  better  sense  also, 

"  My  nature  is  subdued 
To  what  it  works  in,  like  the  dyer's  hand." 

To  bathe  our  minds  in  choice  literature  till  they  be- 
come imbued  with  correct  principles  of  style,  to 
nourish  them  with  good  learning  till  our  taste  grows 
healthy,  so  as  to  discern  quickly  and  surely  between 
good  and  bad,  is  a  process  surpassingly  profitable  in 
its  results,  and  in  itself  delightful. 

And  not  only  do  we  need  to  cultivate  good  litera- 
ture for  its  positive  benefits,  but  also  to  counteract 
certain  evil  influences  of  great  power.  Few  among 
us  have  learned  from  childhood  to  speak  graceful  and 
forcible,  or  even  correct,  English.  And  as  men  grow 
up  and  go  on  in  life,  so  large  a  part  of  what  they  read 
in  newspapers,  and  of  what  they  hear  in  conversation 
and  even  in  public  speaking,  is  in  a  vicious  style,  that 
they  inevitably  feel  the  effect.  Besides  the  more 
obvious  errors  as  to  pronunciation  and  syntax,  which 
are  too  often  committed  by  cultivated  speakers,  there 
results  from  these  influences  a  more  subtle  and  more 
serious  injury  to  taste,  which  only  a  continued  appli- 
cation to  the  best  literature  can  remedy  and  prevent. 
De  Quincey  points  out  that  the  immense  multiplica- 
tion of  newspapers  has  injured  our  style  of  conversa- 
tion. Everybody  reads  them  constantly,  and  their 
writers  too  often  use  the  most  bookish  and  inflated 
language  in  treating  of  common  things,  as  well  as  the 
most  undignified  language  in  treating  of  serious 
things.     But  it  would  be  idle  to  enumerate  the  many 

1  De  Orat.  II.  15,  16. 


352      GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS   ON    STYLE. 

and  grievous  faults  of  our  current  newspaper  dialect. 
One  who  wishes  to  form  a  good  style  would  do  well 
to  select  his  newspapers,  secular  and  religious,  with 
reference  to  this  as  well  as  to  other  considerations. 
The  style  of  preaching  will  always  naturally,  and  to  a 
great  extent  properly,  share  the  peculiarities  which 
mark  the  literature  of  the  day.  When  this  exhibits 
bad  taste,  as  is  so  often  true  now  of  newspaper 
writing  and  public  speaking,  we  must  correct  the  evil 
by  intimacy  with  the  truly  great  authors,  of  our  own 
and  of  former  times. 

It  is  delightful  to  think  how  many  good  authors 
there  are,  in  English  and  in  other  languages.  Our 
religious  literature,  both  sermons  and  other  works, 
presents  noble  specimens  of  style,  in  which  one  may 
at  the  same  time  nourish  the  intellect,  warm  the 
heart,  and  refine  the  taste,  and  among  which  he  may 
select  such  as  will  exert  the  kind  of  influence  he  par- 
ticularly needs.  The  great  French  preachers,  from 
Bossuet  to  Monod,  with  such  Americans  as  J.  M. 
Mason  and  R.  Fuller,  form  admirable  examples  of 
passion  combined  with  elegance.  Baxter  is  remark- 
able for  directness  and  pungency,  Bunyan  for  homely 
and  charming  simplicity.  If  one's  style  is  dry  and 
barren,  he  may  read  Chrysostom,  Jeremy  Taylor, 
Chalmers,  or  Melvill.  For  a  grand  model  of  style, 
which,  like  some  young  Grecian  athlete,  stands  glori- 
ous in  disciplined  strength  and  manly  beauty,  we  must 
go  to  Robert  Hall,  his  writings  as  well  as  his  sermons. 
And  if  the  influence  of  Hall  should  tend  to  produce 
monotonous  elevation,  never  coming  down  to  com- 
mon phrases,  nor  coming  close  with  personal  applica- 
tions, the  exact  remedy  is  to  be  found  in  familiarity 
with  Spurgeon.  But  any  such  indication  of  speci- 
mens must  be  unjust,  if  not  misleading,  as  regards  the 
many  that  are  omitted.     The  important   matter   is, 


GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE.     353 

that  one  should  not  read  at  hap-hazard ;  that  taking 
account  of  his  mental  constitution,  his  previous  train- 
ing, and  present  stage  of  development,  the  particular 
tendencies  as  to  thinking  and  style  of  which  he  is 
now  conscious,  he  should  select,  according  to  the 
best  accessible  information,  such  works  as  will  best 
meet  his  actual  wants. 

Preachers  ought  to  derive  very  great  benefit  in 
point  of  style,  from  their  constant  reading  and  minute 
study  of  the  English  Bible.  The  Scriptures  embrace 
almost  every  species  of  style,  and  each  with  many 
varieties.  And  the  current  English  translation,  though 
some  of  its  phrases  have  become  nearly  obsolete, 
presents  the  English  language  in  its  most  admirable 
form.  It  dates  from  the  golden  age  of  English  litera- 
ture, and  deserves,  in  an  eminent  degree,  the  eulogy 
which  Spenser  passed  upon  Chaucer,  as  a  "  well  of 
English  undefyled." 

Besides  the  common  ground  of  general  literature, 
which  no  one,  of  whatever  special  calling,  can  afford 
to  neglect,  preachers  may  learn  much  from  the  great 
secular  orators,  even  as  lawyers  and  statesmen  often 
diligently  study  the  great  preachers.  And  this  is 
true,  not  merely  for  the  beginner,  but  even  more  for 
the  practised  speaker.  To  see  the  same  principles 
carried  out  in  material  and  for  purposes  quite  differ- 
ent from  his  own,  will  illustrate  those  principles 
afresh,  and  will  prevent  his  becoming  formal  in 
arrangement  and  monotonous  in  style.  In  oratory 
and  in  general  literature,  the  Greek  language  and 
our  own  English  are  rich  beyond  rivalry.  To  these 
let  the  preacher  mainly  address  himself,  in  youth  and 
in  age,  and  literature  will  shed  on  his  intellectual  and 
aesthetical  culture  its  "  selectest  influence."  But  let 
not  the  young  student  submit  himself  to  the  authority 
of  any  writer  as  a  perfect  standard,  nor  be  repelled 

23 


354     GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE. 

from  some  of  the  greatest  by  their  manifest  blemishes. 
"  There  is  no  writer  who  has  not  some  faults,  and 
faults  of  taste  are  perhaps  those  the  most  common  to 
the  highest  and  the  lowest  order  of  writers.  The 
taste  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton  is  not  always  unim- 
peachable. But  it  is  to  the  greatest  writers  that 
Adam  Smith's  exclamation  applies  —  *  How  many 
great  qualities  must  that  writer  possess  who  can  thus 
render  his  very  faults  agreeable ! '  If  we  desire  to 
find  a  writer  without  fault,  we  must  not  look  for  him 
among  the  greatest  writers."  ^  Augustine  had  been 
in  his  youth  a  teacher  of  rhetoric.  He  knew  the  folly 
ol  that  artificial  instruction  in  style  and  delivery  which 
there  have  always  been  teachers  to  recommend,  and 
he  knew  that  even  a  just  rhetorical  system  is  but  a 
help  to  something  higher.  He  says :  **  Moreover,  I 
enjoin  it  upon  him  who  would  combine  eloquence 
with  wisdom,  by  which  he  will  certainly  become  more 
effective,  to  read  and  listen  to  the  eloquent,  and 
imitate  them  in  exercises,  rather  than  apply  to  the 
teachers  of  the  rhetorical  art ;  provided  those  whom 
he  hears  and  reads  were,  or  are  now,  justly  celebrated, 
not  merely  for  their  eloquence,  but  also  for  their 
wisdom."  2 

It  will  be  found  very  helpful  as  well  as  entertaining 
to  read  inspiring  lives  of  literary  men.  We  happily 
have  many  such  treasures  in  books  like  Masson's  Life 
of  Milton,  Lockhart's  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and 
Trevelyan's  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay. 

It  should  be  added  that  conversation,  especially 
that  of  intelligent  women,  may  also  furnish  admirable 
and  influential  examples  of  clear,  sprightly,  varied, 
and  every  way  attractive  style.  So  too  with  Letters. 
"  Would  you  desire  at  this  day  to  read  our  noble  lan- 

1  Bulwer,  on  Style,  Caxtoniana,  I.  131. 

2  De  Doct.  Christ.  IV. 


GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS   ON    STYLE.     355 

guage  in  its  native  beauty,  picturesque  from  idiomatic 
propriety,  racy  in  its  phraseology,  delicate  yet  sinewy 
in  its  composition  —  steal  the  mail-bags,  and  break 
open  all  the  letters  in  female  handwriting."  ^  Cicero's 
Epistles  are  for  most  men  far  better  examples  of  style 
than  Cicero's  Orations.  And  if  to  an  acquaintance 
with  Bacon,  Milton's  prose,  Barrow,  and  Burke,  one 
should  add  a  familiarity  with  some  of  the  finest  Let- 
ters, he  would  see  the  English  language  in  all  its 
most  prodigal  strength  and  splendor,  and  in  all  its 
most  flexible  grace  and  delicate  beauty.^ 

(3)  But  the  chief  means  of  improvement  in  style  is 
careful  practice  in  writing  and  speaking;  — not  mere 
practice  without  care,  for  this  will  develop  and  con- 
firm what  is  faulty  as  well  as  what  is  good. 

In  written  composition,  it  is  very  unwise,  although 
very  common,  to  neglect  details.  If  a  man  spells 
badly,  he  should  set  himself  vigorously  to  correct  the 
fault,  which  usually  requires  nothing  but  a  little  sys- 
tem and  perseverance.^  To  take  some  pains  in  this 
direction  is  worth  while,  not  only  for  the  sake  of  re- 
moving a  literary  blemish,  but  because  accuracy  in 
detail  is  apt  to  react  profitably  upon  our  mental 
habits,  and  also  to  increase  our  love  for  the  work  of 

1  De  Quincey  on  Style,  p.  77. 

2  Holcombe's  Literature  in  Letters  (New  York,  Appleton),  is  a 
delightful  volume,  containing  a  choice  collection  of  English  and 
American  Letters,  classified  and  with  all  necessary  annotation. 

8  Let  him  have  whatever  he  writes  examined  by  some  accurate 
speller,  and  make  lists  of  the  words  corrected,  putting  them  down  as 
they  ought  to  be,  and  frequently  running  over  the  growing  list,  with 
the  resolve,  at  every  step,  that  this  error,  and  this,  shall  occur  no 
more;  further,  let  him  habitually  consult  a  dictionary  when  doubtful 
as  to  the  spelling  of  a  word ;  and,  moreover,  he  must  begin  to  notice 
spelling  in  the  books  and  periodicals  he  reads,  and  to  take  interest 
in  disputed  questions.  We  often  find  it  harder  to  correct  confirmed 
habits  about  trifles  than  about  more  important  matters,  because  the 
former  do  not  awaken  an  interested  and  watchful  attention.  The 
plan  proposed  will  meet  this  difficulty. 


356     GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE. 

composition.  Some  one  has  said  that  there  never 
was  a  great  sculptor  who  did  not  love  to  chip  the 
marble.  And  if  spelling  be  worth  attention,  so  ispmict- 
uatiofiy  though  this  is  still  more  commonly  neglected. 
Punctuation  indicates  the  relation  of  the  parts  of  a 
sentence  to  each  other.  The  only  real  difficulty  in 
punctuating  properly  is  the  difficulty  in  determining 
the  true  relation  of  clauses,  and  he  who  does  not 
mark  the  points  is  apt  to  neglect,  more  than  he  is 
aware,  the  structure  of  his  sentences.  Aristotle  urges 
that  we  should  write  in  a  style  easy  to  point,  ^  and  it 
is  certainly  very  desirable  to  make  the  sense  unmis- 
takable, apart  from  punctuation.  But  the  inferior 
flexibility  of  construction,  and  the  comparative  lack 
of  particles,  renders  this  much  more  difficult  in  Eng- 
lish than  in  Greek  and  many  other  languages;  so 
that  with  us  punctuation  is  particularly  important.^ 
It  will  be  evident,  too,  that  every  man's  punctuation 
must  be  to  some  extent  his  own,  as  it  indicates  his 
mode  of  constructing  sentences.  Of  this,  Chalmers 
is  an  example,  in  his  infrequent  use  of  the  comma. 
The  dash,  which  has  of  late  become  so  common, 
is  convenient  to  indicate  a  break  in  the  sentence, 
whether  an  interruption,  so  as  to  insert  something 
akin  to  a  parenthesis,  or  an  abrupt  transition  to  some- 
thing related  to  what  precedes,  but  not  joined  to  it 
by  strict  grammatical  connection.  It  is  thus  an  affec- 
tation to  abjure  the  dash  altogether,  as  some  propose 
to  do,  but  it  should  be  used  only  for  a  distinct  and 
positive  reason.  Many  good  writers  now  use  it  to 
save  the  trouble  of  deciding  what  more  definite  point- 
ing is  appropriate,  —  certainly  a  very  slothful  fashion ; 

1  Rhet.  in.  5, 6. 

2  There  is  an  excellent  little  work  on  Punctuation  by  the  lamented 
Prof.  Joseph  A.  Turner,  of  Hollins  Institute,  Virginia,  whose  early 
death  was  a  serious  loss  to  the  study  of  English  in  this  country. 


GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE.     357 

and  some  of  the  best  writers,  as  Brougham  and 
Bulwer,  introduce  the  dash  so  often  as  to  break  many 
of  their  sentences  into  disjointed  fragments.  In  prac- 
tical attention  to  punctuation,  we  must  endeavor  to 
master  the  principles  involved,  the  fundamental  sig- 
nificance which  usage  has  assigned  to  the  several 
points,  and  then  use  them  according  to  our  own 
meaning,  and  not  according  to  the  stiff  and  unbending 
rules  which  are  so  often  laid  down.  And  it  should 
be  noticed  that  although  forbidden  by  many  of  the 
books,  punctuation  may  be  sometimes  employed, 
apart  from  grammatical  relations,  to  indicate  the 
rhythmical  movement  of  the  successive  parts  of 
a  sentence.^ 

And  so  as  to  all  the  details  of  grammar.  Campbell 
tells  of  a  preacher  who  was  consulted  by  a  friend 
having  a  mind  to  publish,  "  Whether  he  thought  it 
befitting  a  writer  on  religion  to  attend  to  such  little 
matters  as  grammatical  correctness  ? "  and  he  an- 
swered, "  By  all  means.  It  is  much  better  to  write 
so  as  to  make  a  critic  turn  Christian,  than  so  as  to 
make  a  Christian  turn  critic."  ^ 

There  can  be  no  question  that  grammatical  accu- 
racy is  an  object  worthy  of  earnest  pursuit.  The 
young  preacher  who  finds  himself  particularly  de- 
ficient in  this  respect,  ought,  besides  such  study  of 
treatises  on  grammar  as  we  have  already  urged,  to 
go  through  some  good  work  on  Composition,  labo- 
riously writing  the  exercises.  If  nothing  else  were 
gained,  it  is  much  to  be  relieved  from  all  fear  of  com- 
mitting blunders  that  would  be  ridiculed. 

1  A  good  practical  discussion  of  punctuation  may  be  found  in 
Angus*  Hand-Book  of  the  English  Tongue,  and  also,  with  copious 
exercises,  in  Quackenbos'  Composition  and  Rhetoric,  and  in  other 
treatises  on  Rhetoric  and  Grammar.  Let  no  man  think  it  beneath 
his  dignity  to  use  good  school-books  for  such  a  purpose. 

2  On  Pulpit  Eloquence,  Lect.  III. 


358     GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE. 

But  while  attentive  to  the  details  of  composition, 
one  must  be  chiefly  occupied  with  the  thought ;  and 
in  order  to  this,  composition  as  a  mere  exercise  must 
more  and  more  give  place  to  writing  with  a  real  in- 
terest, with  some  practical  aim.  In  all  such  writing, 
one  should  become  possessed  with  the  subject,  and 
then  write  as  rapidly  as  is  consistent  with  perspicuous 
and  forcible  expression,  leaving  minute  corrections  to 
be  made  afterward.  But  he  must  be  sure  to  make 
the  corrections.  Thought  once  cast  into  a  mould  is 
apt  to  harden  very  soon,  and  any  considerable  altera- 
tion is  then  a  difficult  and  laborious  task.  Sometimes 
a  whole  paragraph  must  be  thrown  back  into  the  fur- 
nace of  the  mind,  and  fused  anew,  in  order  to  remove 
a  single  flaw  in  one  sentence.  Think  of  John  Foster, 
toiling  over  a  sentence  for  two  hours,  determined  to 
have  it  right.  Virgil  wrote  his  Georgics  sometimes 
at  the  rate  of  one  line  a  day.  He  would  dictate  some 
verses,  then  spend  the  day  in  revising,  correcting,  and 
reducing  them.  He  compared  himself,  as  Aulus  Gel- 
lius  mentions,  to  a  she-bear  licking  her  offspring  into 
shape.  Tennyson  wrote  "  Come  into  the  garden, 
Maud,"  nearly  fifty  times  before  it  suited  him,  spend- 
ing nearly  a  month  over  it.  He  wrote  "  Locksley 
Hall  "  in  two  days,  and  then  spent  six  weeks  in  alter- 
ing and  polishing  it.  Macaulay  and  George  Eliot 
were  diligent  and  careful  in  rewriting  and  correcting 
their  work;  and  there  are  numerous  other  instances 
among  the  great  masters  in  literature,  ancient  and 
modern,  who  spent  hours,  sometimes  days,  in  revising 
and  altering  their  writings. 

A  most  valuable  means  of  improvement  in  com- 
mand of  language  and  style  in  general  is  written 
translation  into  English  from  other  languages.  This 
tests  and  develops,  in  a  peculiar  manner,  our  knowl- 
edge of  English.     When  attempting  to  express  our 


GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS   ON   STYLE.     359 

own  thoughts,  we  have  the  idea  at  first  only  in  a  dim, 
shifting,  nebulous  form ;  and  in  struggling  to  find  the 
exact  expression,  we  may  unconsciously  change  the 
idea  into  something  else  for  which  fit  expression  pre- 
sents itself.  But  in  translating,  —  not  merely  putting 
word  for  word,  like  a  school-boy,  but  getting  the  ex- 
act idea  conveyed  by  a  sentence,  and  then  seeking 
the  exact  expression  for  that  idea  in  English,  — r  no 
such  substitution  or  shifting  can  take  place.  The 
thought  stands  fixed  in  the  other  language,  with  the 
peculiar  shape  and  color  which  that  language  gives 
it,  and  we  must  find  English  to  express  it,  or  must 
know  that  our  effort  to  do  so  has  failed.  Thus  care- 
ful translation  is  in  one  respect  a  better  exercise  than 
original  composition.  It  is  obvious  that  a  similar 
benefit  will  be  derived,  though  in  a  less  degree,  from 
oral  translation.  It  is  well  known  that  William  Pitt 
was  carefully  trained  by  his  father  to  off-hand  transla- 
tion from  Greek  and  other  languages,  and  that  he 
believed  himself  to  have  derived  immense  advantage 
from  it. 

In  addition  to  writing,  one  must  studiously  practise 
speaking,  in  order  to  form  his  speaking  style.  A  man 
skilled  in  both,  may  closely  imitate  in  writing  the 
style  of  speaking,  but  the  two  are  really  distinct,  and 
in  some  respects  quite  different.  Let  one  speak  much 
that  has  been  carefully  prepared,  though  not  written ; 
and  speak  sometimes,  as  in  social  meetings,  upon  the 
strong  impulse  of  the  moment.  Let  him  always  have 
a  practical  purpose,  and  throw  himself  into  an  effort, 
not  to  make  a  discourse,  but  to  accomplish  his  object. 
Let  him  closely  observe  his  hearers,  and  learn  to  per- 
ceive how  far  they  understand  and  are  impressed. 
He  will  thus  become  able  to  judge  when  to  be  diffuse, 
and  when  rapid,  and  will  acquire  the  directness  of  ad- 
dress, the  power  of  constant  movement  towards  a 


36o     GENERAL   OBSERVATIONS    ON    STYLE. 

fixed  point,  the  passionate  energy  and  unstudied 
grace,  the  flexibility  and  variety  which  characterize 
the  speaking  style.^  And  he  who  aims  at  skill  in 
extemporaneous  speaking,  must  give  special  attention 
to  his  style  in  conversation,  so  that  the  difference  be- 
tween his  more  elevated  and  his  more  famiHar  style 
may  be  a  difference  in  degree  and  not  in  kind. 

It  may  be  added  that  every  writer  or  speaker  should 
cultivate  variety  o{  style.  A  model  of  excellence  in 
this  respect  may  be  seen  in  the  correspondence  and 
the  sermons  of  J.  Addison  Alexander. 

After  all  that  has  been  said  or  can  be  said  as  to 
style,  no  one  should  imagine  that  he  need  only  seek 
to  acquire  power  of  expression,  and  may  give  little 
attention  to  thought  Some  young  men  fall  into  this 
error,  and  it  is  simply  fatal.  "  Let  there  be  care 
about  words,"  says  Quintilian,  "  but  solicitude  about 
things." 

1  Comp.  on  the  style  of  extemporaneous  speaking,  Part  IV. 
chap.  i.  §  3  (2). 


QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY.     361 

CHAPTER  II. 
QUALITIES   OF  STYLE  —  PERSPICUITY. 

THE  qualities  or  properties  of  Style  have  been 
variously  classified  and  named  by  different  wri- 
ters on  Rhetoric  and  Homiletics.  It  is  perhaps  well 
to  distinguish  between  the  grammatical  and  rhetorical 
qualities,  the  former  including  principally  correctness 
and  purity  of  language^  while  the  latter  refer  more 
particularly  to  the  impression  or  effect  of  discourse, 
whether  written  or  spoken.  Of  these  rhetorical 
qualities  the  best  classification  is  that  adopted  from 
Campbell  by  Whately  and  others,  namely.  Perspicu- 
ity, Energy,  and  Elegance.  Some  prefer  to  say  clear- 
ness, force,  and  beauty;  but  nothing  is  really  gained 
by  the  change.  Our  present  concern  is  to  study  the 
rhetorical  qualities  of  Style  in  their  important  rela- 
tions to  preaching,  and  the  terms  used  by  Campbell 
will  be  retained. 

The  most  important  property  of  style  is  perspi- 
cuity. ^  Style  is  excellent  when,  like  the  atmosphere, 
it  shows  the  thought,  but  itself  is  not  seen.  Yet  this 
comparison,  and  the  term  "  perspicuity"  which  was  de- 
rived from  it,  are  both  inadequate,  for  good  style  is 
like  stereoscopic  glasses,  which,  transparent  them- 
selves, give  form  and  body  and  distinct  outline  to  that 
which  they  exhibit.  ^ 

A  certain  grand-looking  obscurity  is  often  pleasing 
to  some   hearers  and  readers,  who  suppose   that  it 

^  On  perspicuity,  consult  especially  Campbell,  and  Herbert  Spen- 
cer's Essay  on  Style. 
2  Comp.  Shedd,  p.  59. 


362    QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY. 

shows  vast  learning,  or  great  originality,  ^  or  immense 
profundity.  To  treat  subjects  in  this  fashion  is  no 
new  thing.  Quintilian  says  it  was  not  new  in  his  day, 
for  that  he  found  mention  in  Livy  of  a  teacher  who 
used  to  direct  his  pupils  to  darken  the  idea.  He  adds 
a  witticism  of  some  one  whose  hearers  complained 
that  they  did  not  understand,  and  who  replied,  *'  So 
much  the  better;  I  did  not  even  understand  it 
myself,"  2  and  elsewhere  speaks  of  men  who  think 
themselves  talented  because  it  requires  talent  to  un- 
derstand them.  M.  Hue  says  that  in  the  Lama  Con- 
vents, where  the  Buddhist  professors  lecture  to  their 
pupils,  the  more  obscure  and  unintelligible  their  say- 
ings, the  more  sublime  they  are  reckoned.  Alas ! 
that  preachers  of  the  gospel  are  not  always  proof 
against  this  pitiful  temptation. 

A  preacher  is  more  solemnly  bound  than  any  other 
person  to  make  his  language  perspicuous.  This  is 
very  important  in  wording  a  law,  in  writing  a  title- 
deed  or  a  physician's  prescription,  but  still  more  im- 
portant in  proclaiming  the  Word  of  God,  words  of 
eternal  life. 

It  is  also  true  that  a  preacher  has  greater  difficulty 
than  any  other  class  of  speakers  in  making  his  style 
perspicuous  to  all\\\s  hearers,  for  no  others  speak  to  so 
heterogeneous  an  audience,  including  persons  of  both 
sexes,  of  every  age  from  early  childhood,  and  of 
every  grade  of  intellect  and  culture.  But  this  diffi- 
culty, when  most  deeply  felt,  should  but  stimulate 
to  diligent  and  painstaking  effort.  For  what  is  the 
use  of  preaching,  unless  we  may  hope  to  do  good? 
And  what  good  can  be  done,  save  in  proportion  as 
we  are  understood?  Pretentious  obscurity  may  excite 
a  poor  admiration,  unmeaning  prettiness  may  give  a 

1  Comp.  on  originality,  Part  I.  chap.  v.  §  3. 

2  Quint.  VIII.  2,  18. 


QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY.    363 

certain  pleasure,  mere  vociferation  —  like  Bottom's 
part,  "nothing  but  roaring," —  may  affect  some  people's 
nerves,  but  only  truth,  and  truth  that  is  understood, 
can  bring  real  benefit  Moreover,  something  worse 
may  happen  than  the  failure  to  do  good ;  we  may  do 
harm.  Some  hearers  are  repelled  and  disgusted  by 
obscurity.  Others  are  misled.  It  is  a  mournful  thing 
to  think  of,  but  one  of  not  infrequent  occurrence,  that 
men  should  so  misunderstand  us,  as  to  take  what  we 
meant  for  medicine  and  convert  it  into  poison.  As  we 
love  men's  souls  we  must  strive  to  prevent  so  dread- 
ful a  result.  One  cannot  expect,  as  Quintilian  already 
remarks,  "  that  the  hearer  will  be  so  intent  upon 
understanding  as  to  cast  upon  the  darkness  of  the 
speech  a  light  from  his  own  intelligence.  What  we 
say  must  be  made  so  clear  that  it  will  pour  into  his 
mind  as  the  sun  pours  into  the  eyes,  even  when  they 
are  not  directed  toward  it.  We  must  take  care,  not 
that  it  shall  be  possible  for  him  to  understand,  but 
that  it  shall  be  utterly  impossible  for  him  not  to  un- 
derstand." ^  The  German  philosopher  Fichte  wrote 
a  treatise  with  this  title :  *'  An  account  clear  as  the 
sun,  of  the  real  nature  of  my  philosophy ;  an  attempt 
to  compel  the»  reader  to  understand."  ^  None  but 
a  very  self-confident  man  would  put  forth  such  a  title ; 
but  it  indicates  what  every  teacher  of  men  ought  to 
aim  at,  not  arrogantly  but  resolutely,  —  to  compel 
the  reader  or  hearer  to  understand. 

Two  general  remarks  as  to  perspicuity  may  be  here 
made.  The  style  may  be  not  lacking  in  perspicuity, 
and  yet  the  discourse  may  seem  hard  to  comprehend, 
because  the  subject  is  difficult,  or  what  is  taught  about 
it  is  unacceptable.  For  example,  men  speak  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  as  obscure;  how  far  is  this 
opinion  due  to   a  desire  to   understand  more  upon 

1  Quint.  VIII.  2,  23.  2  Quoted  by  Shedd,  p.  72. 


364    QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY. 

some  subjects  than  it  teaches,  or  a  reluctance  to  re- 
ceive as  true  what  it  does  teach  ?  The  more  plainly 
a  discourse  presents  the  truths  of  the  Epistle,  the  more 
obscure  it  will  seem  if  we  strive  to  make  it  mean 
something  else.  The  other  remark  is,  that  perspi- 
cuity of  style  is  closely  allied  to  perspicuity  oi  thought. 
It  is  true,  as  Whately  says,  ^  that  men  sometimes 
speak  obscurely  on  a  subject  for  the  simple  reason 
that  they  are  familiar  with  it,  and  forget  that  others 
are  not  so,  —  a  practical  mistake  which  preachers 
are  in  no  small  danger  of  making.  If  any  one  should 
assert  that  clear  ideas  of  a  subject  will  always  lead  to 
clear  statements,  this  common  experience  would  set 
aside  the  assertion.  The  statement  of  clear  ideas  will 
be  subjectively  clear,  but  is  by  no  means  sure  to  be 
objectively  clear ;  it  will  be  plain  to  him  who  makes 
it,  but  may  be  very  obscure  to  other  people.  But  all 
this  has  nothing  to  do  with  that  other  proposition, 
that  there  can  be  no  clearness  of  expression  without 
clear  thinking.  The  effort  to  gain  a  clear  concep- 
tion and  to  work  out  a  perspicuous  expression  of  it, 
will  usually  go  on  together;  and  the  habit  of  per- 
spicuous expression  reacts  powerfully  on  habits  of 
thought.  2 

Sometimes  we  are  required  to  speak  of  things 
which  we  cannot  fully  comprehend,  but  can  only  ap- 
prehend, as  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  the  Incarna- 
tion, the  Atonement ;  and  oftener  yet  we  must  dis- 
cuss matters  which  we  cannot  hope  to  make  clear  to 
all  who  hear  us,  though  we  must  make  sure  of  some. 
Yet  in  all  such  cases  we  must  be  as  clear  as  the  sub- 
jects and  circumstances  allow. 

Perspicuity  of  style  depends  mainly  on  three  things, 

1  Rhetoric,  p.  307. 

2  As  to  the  effect  of  arrangement  on  perspicuity,  see  Part  II. 
chap.  i.  (2). 


QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY.    365 

namely,  the  choice  of  termSy  the  construction  of  sen- 
tences and  paragraphs,  and  the  proper  management 
of  brevity  and  diffuseness, 

(i)  So  far  as  perspicuity  depends  on  the  terms  em- 
ployed, it  requires  the  combination  of  two  elements. 

(^)  We  must  use,  as  far  as  possible,  words  and 
phrases  that  will  be  intelligible  to  our  audience. 
Where  the  audience  comprises  many  who  are  com- 
paratively illiterate,  —  and  that  is  generally  the  case, 
—  we  must  strive  to  make  the  terms  intelligible  to 
them.  "  Speak,"  said  a  sensible  farmer  to  his  brother, 
who  was  a  preacher,  **  speak  so  that  the  women  and 
children  can  understand  you,  and  the  men  will  be 
sure  to."^  Dean  Swift,  in  his  famous  Letter  to  a 
Young  Clergyman,  puts  the  matter  as  follows :  **  I 
have  been  curious  enough  to  take  a  list  of  several 
hundred  words  in  a  sermon  of  a  new  beginner,  which 
not  one  of  his  hearers  among  a  hundred  could  pos- 
sibly understand;  neither  can  I  easily  call  to  mind 
any  clergyman  of  my  own  acquaintance,  who  is 
wholly  exempt  from  this  error,  although  many  of 
them  agree  with  me  in  the  dislike  of  the  thing.  But 
I  am  apt  to  put  myself  in  the  place  of  the  vulgar, 
and  think  many  words  difficult  or  obscure,  which 
the  preacher  will  not  allow  to  be  so,  because  these 
words  are  obvious  to  scholars." 

Whether  the  preacher  be  what  is  called  a  linguist 
or  not,  he  ought  to  know  at  least  two  languages,  — 
the  language  of  books  and  the  language  of  common 
life.  Wesley  said  that  preachers  may  think  with 
the  learned,  but  must  speak  with  the  common  peo- 
ple.2    When  one  learns  a  thing  in  Latin  or  German, 

^  In  some  places  the  women  are  better  educated  than  the  men, 
and  they  are  usually  quicker  and  more  attentive;  but  that  does  not 
affect  the  principle  of  the  farmer's  saying. 

2  Quoted  by  Phelps,  p.  152. 


366    QUALITIES   OF   STYLE— PERSPICUITY. 

and  undertakes  to  state  it  to  his  people,  he  must  of 
course  translate.  And  so,  what  we  study  in  learned 
works,  using,  as  is  there  convenient  and  necessary, 
the  technical  language  of  science,  we  must  in  preach- 
ing translate  into  popular  language,  the  language  of 
common  life.  Many  a  young  graduate,  from  college 
or  theological  seminary,  errs  not  merely  in  treating 
subjects  little  suited  to  the  popular  mind,  but  in 
using  many  terms  which  have  grown  familiar  to  him, 
but  which  the  people  in  general  cannot  at  all  under- 
stand. Most  persons  afterwards  learn  to  correct 
this,  at  least  in  some  measure;  but  occasionally  we 
see  a  man  of  mature  years  and  of  great  ability,  who 
seems  wholly  unacquainted  with  popular  modes  of 
thought  and  forms  of  expression,  and  wholly  una- 
ware that  such  is  the  case.  The  few  who  understand 
and  sympathize  with  him  speak  with  delight  of  his 
sermons,  but  for  the  many  they  might  as  well  be 
delivered  in  German.^  Even  those  technical  terms 
in  theology  with  which  the  people  are  very  familiar, 
do  not  always  represent  to  them  any  distinct  con- 
ception. Yet  such  terms  as  regeneration,  depravity, 
etc.,  it  is  necessary  to  use  in  preaching,  or  much 
time  will  be  lost  in  tedious  circumlocutions.  Besides 
taking  frequent  occasion  distinctly  to  explain  these 
terms,  we  may  often  prefix  or  add  to  them  some 
words  of  a  more  popular  character,  or  may  intro- 
duce them  in  such  connections  as  will  throw  light 
on  them.^  That  even  the  commonest  words  of  Scrip- 
ture may  be  employed  in  an  utterly  unscriptural 
sense,  is  shown  by  the  frequent  use  of  them  on  the 
part  of  modern  Pantheistic  infidels. 

It  is  often  remarked  that  Anglo-Saxon  words  are 

1  See  a  striking  passage  in  Vinet,  pp.  373,  374. 

2  As  to  Foster's  objection  to  the  use  of  such  terms,  compare  below 
on  Elegance,  chap.  iv. 


QUALITIES   OF   STYLE —  PERSPICUITY.     367 

usually  more  perspicuous  to  the  people  at  large  than 
words  of  Latin  origin.  The  latter  are  frequently 
more  precise^  being  restricted  in  usage  to  a  certain 
specific  sense,  while  the  Anglo-Saxon  word  is  the 
general  term.  In  fact,  the  Anglo-Saxon  element 
of  our  language  deserves  great  attention,  for  its  terms 
are  not  only  perspicuous  to  all,  but  are  apt  to  be 
singularly  suggestive,  through  life-long  association  of 
ideas;  besides  the  bulk  of  meaning  contained,  they 
carry  with  them  an  atmosphere  of  suggestion,  often 
surpassingly  attractive  and  stimulating.  Those  who 
have  studied  Latin  and  French  ought  to  study 
Anglo-Saxon  also;  and  whether  a  student  of  lan- 
guage or  not,  every  preacher  should  practically 
master  the  homely  "  household  words  "  of  our  own 
English.  Let  it  not  be  taken  for  granted  that  we 
know  these  already;  for  the  discriminating  use  of 
them  is  by  no  means  universal,  even  among  educated 
men.^ 

{J})  We  must  use  words  and  phrases  that  exactly 
express  our  thought.  Terms  may  be  intelligible  to 
the  audience,  and  yet  not  certainly  represent  to  them 
our  meaning.  They  may  be  ambiguous,  so  that 
while  the  hearer  understands  both  senses  of  the 
word,  he  does  not  readily  see  which  is  here  in- 
tended. Even  the  sacred  writers,  employing  an 
easy,  colloquial  style,  have  sometimes  left  us  am- 
biguous expressions.     For  example,  the  love  of  God, 


1  On  the  general  subject  of  studying  English,  see  above,  chap, 
i.  §  2.  Of  course  it  would  be  folly  to  prefer  an  Anglo-Saxon  word 
merely  because  it  is  such,  when  a  word  of  Latin  or  other  origin  would 
be  equally  intelligible,  and  more  appropriate.  But  the  effort  to  use 
the  most  perspicuous  and  expressive  terms  will  be  promoted  by 
habitual  attention  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  part  of  our  language.  Excel- 
lent discussions  of  the  various  elements  of  our  language  are  found 
in  Earle's  English  Prose,  and  Ramsey's  English  Language  and 
English  Grammar,  chap,  ii.  Sources  of  English. 


368     QUALITIES    OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY. 

in  Greek  as  in  English,  may  denote  our  love  to  God, 
or  his  love  to  us.  Which  it  means  in  any  case  must 
be  determined  from  the  connection,  or  perhaps  from 
the  usage  of  the  writer.  John  uses  it  in  both  senses, 
Paul  almost  invariably  in  the  sense  of  God's  love  to 
us.  A  style  absolutely  free  from  such  ambiguities 
would  not  be  natural,  and  yet  they  ought  of  course 
to  be  avoided  as  far  as  possible.  Or,  terms  may  be 
used  in  different  senses  in  the  same  connection,  and 
thus,  although  not  in  themselves  ambiguous,  may 
leave  the  meaning  doubtful.  Or  they  may  be  gen- 
eral terms,  and  fail  to  indicate  what  specific  idea  was 
meant  Or  they  may  be  indefinite,  and  leave  it 
uncertain  what  extent  of  meaning  was  designed.  In 
general,  the  terms  ought  to  be  precise,  as  it  were  cut 
down  to  fit  the  meaning,  so  that  the  expression  and 
the  idea  exactly  correspond,  neither  of  them  contain- 
ing anything  which  the  other  does  not  contain.^ 
Such  terms  may  almost  always  be  found,  and  we 
should  habitually  constrain  ourselves  to  seek  for 
them.  Besides  the  advantage  of  perspicuity  to 
others,  this  habit  will  greatly  benefit  our  own  minds, 
for  our  thoughts  attain  a  definite  form  and  distinct 
outlines  only  in  proportion  as  we  find  the  precise 
terms  to  express  them.  It  will  also  give  freshness. 
No  two  men  think  exactly  alike,  even  as  all  counte- 
nances are  different;  and  he  who  thinks  at  all  upon 
a  subject,  and  then  says  just  what  he  thinks y  cannot 
fail  of  being  to  some  extent  original. 

One  important  means  of  securing  precision  is 
accurate  discrimination  between  so-called  synonyms. 
Even  the  English  language,  which  in  so  many  cases 

1  It  should  be  remarked  that  Vinet's  discussion  of  precision,  and 
of  what  he  calls  propriety,  is  apt  to  confuse  the  student,  because 
those  terms  do  not  mean  precisely  the  same  thing  in  French  as  in 
English.  This  difficulty  also  exists  with  reference  to  some  other 
portions  of  his  valuable  work. 


QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUTY.       369 

retains  both  an  Anglo-Saxon  and  a  Latin  word  of 
much  the  same  original  meaning,  has,  strictly  speak- 
ing, no  synonyms.  Our  usage  has  assigned  to  the 
words  different  departments  of  the  field  once  com- 
mon to  both,  or  at  least  a  different  extent  of  appli- 
cation. The  more  cultivated  a  language  becomes,  as 
De  Quincey  has  remarked,  the  more  it  distinguishes 
between  apparent  synonyms.  To  take  a  familiar 
example,  the  Greek  word  sympathy,  the  Latin  com- 
passion,  and  the  compound  of  Anglo-Saxon,  fellow- 
feelingy  are  in  origin  substantially  the  same ;  but  how 
distinct  they  now  are  as  English  words.  Yet  there 
are  very  many  cases  in  which  different  words  will 
coincide,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  so  that  the  care- 
less observer  would  regard  them  as  in  all  respects 
equivalent,  and  between  these  it  is  highly  important 
to  discriminate.  Our  own  language,  for  the  reason 
just  indicated,  greatly  abounds  in  these  synonyms, 
and  the  preacher  cannot  be  too  earnestly  urged  to 
give  them  his  constant  and  painstaking  attention.^ 

Skill  in  the  choice  of  terms  comes  to  no  man  as  a 
matter  of  course.  All  who  succeed  in  this  respect, ' 
however  gifted  or  however  unlettered,  have  attained 
it  by  observation,  reflection,  practice.  He  who 
thinks  words  unimportant,  will  never  be  perspicu- 
ous in  expression,  nor  clear  in  thinking. ^ 

1  Whately's  Synonyms  is  a  good  book,  so  far  as  it  goes.  The 
latest  editions  of  all  the  great  Dictionaries  treat  all  the  more  impor- 
tant Synonyms,  and  many  of  them  in  a  very  instructive  manner. 
Roget's  Thesaurus  of  English  Words  is  also  useful,  for  this  and 
kindred  purposes.  Crabb's  Synonyms,  which  became  famous  be- 
cause we  had  nothing  else,  is  deficient  in  clearness,  and  often  inaccu- 
rate. Smith's  Synonyms  Discriminated  is  probably  the  best  book 
on  the  subject.  Fallows'  One  Hundred  Thousand  Synonyms  and 
Antonyms  does  not  discuss  the  meanings,  but  is  a  useful  work. 

2  A  talented  and  highly  educated  young  man,  who  was  made  Pro- 
fessor of  Natural  Sciences  in  an  American  University,  rarely  met  a 
particular  friend  of  his  without  speaking  of  words.    "  What  do  you 

24 


3/0    QUALITIES    OF   STYLE  —  PERSPICUITY. 

(2)  Perspicuity  also  depends  on  the  construction 
of  sentences  and  paragraphs.  This  important  sub- 
ject will  not  here  be  discussed  at  length,  because  it 
requires  to  be  illustrated  by  numerous  examples, 
and  can  be  thoroughly  mastered  only  by  means  of 
written  exercises. 

It  is  obvious  that  a  short  sentence  will  be  more 
perspicuous  than  a  long  one.  Yet  a  succession  of 
very  short  sentences  must  not  only  be  deficient  in 
respect  of  harmony,  and  of  the  energy  which  belongs 
to  climax,  but  is  really  unfavorable  to  perspicuity. 
Sentences  aggregate  the  thoughts  which  are  to  be 
comprehended  and  retained;  and  if  these  bundles, 
so  to  speak,  are  of  considerable  dimensions,  the 
whole  mass  of  thought  will  be  more  readily  grasped 
and  more  easily  borne  with  us.  In  order  to  variety, 
there  should  be  a  combination  of  short  and  long 
sentences.  Even  one  that  is  very  long  may  be 
quite  perspicuous,  provided  the  sense  be  not  sus- 
pended till  the  close,  as  is  done  in  periodic  sen- 
tences.^ In  general  it  is  better  that  the  qualifying 
clauses  of  a  sentence  should  precede  those  qualified ; 
in  order  that  when  we  do  reach  a  concrete  concep- 
tion, it  may  be  the  complete  conception  proposed, 
needing  no  subsequent  addition  or  correction.  But, 
"as  carrying  forward  each  qualifying  clause  costs 
some  mental  effort,  it  follows  that  when  the  number 
of  them  and  the  time  they  are  carried  becomes  great, 
we  reach  a  limit  beyond  which  more  is  lost  than 

think  is  the  difference  between  this  word  and  this  ?  It  is  so  hard  to 
find  the  precise  word  for  describing  physical  forces  and  phenomena." 
A  few  years  later  a  gentleman  who  had  heard  the  Professor  lecture 
said  to  the  same  friend,  "  He  is  thoroughly  master  of  the  subject,  and 
he  has  an  extraordinary  readiness  and  felicity  in  the  use  of  w^ords. 
What  a  wonderful  gift  1  He  wants  a  word,  and  there  it  is."  Fluency 
is  a  gift,  but  precision  is  the  fruit  of  labor. 
1  See  below,  chap.  iii. 


QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY.     371 

is  gained."^  This  limit  is  much  sooner  reached  in 
what  is  to  be  heard  than  in  what  is  to  be  read.  And 
the  difficulty  is  greater  for  uneducated  minds  than 
cultivated  people  can  well  imagine.  "  Aim  at  a  cer- 
tain simplicity  in  the  structure  of  your  sentences, 
avoiding  long,  intricate,  and  complex  periods.  Re- 
member always  that  the  bulk  of  the  people  are 
unused  to  reading  and  study.  They  lose  sight  of 
the  connection  in  very  long  sentences,  and  they  are 
quite  bewildered  when,  for  the  sake  of  rounding  a 
period,  and  suspending  the  sense  till  the  concluding 
clause,  you  transgress  the  customary  arrangement 
of  the  words.  The  nearer,  therefore,  your  diction 
comes  to  the  language  of  conversation,  the  more 
familiar  will  it  be  to  them,  and  so  the  more  easily 
apprehended.  In  this  the  style  of  Scripture  is  an 
excellent  model."  ^  it  may  be  added  that  sentences 
should  be  so  framed  as  to  leave  no  obscurity  or 
ambiguity  in  respect  to  the  relation  of  different 
clauses.  Special  care  in  this  respect  is  needed  in 
our  language,  because  our  pronouns  present  very 
imperfect  means  of  distinction  as  to  gender,  num- 
ber, and  case.  It  is  grievously  common  to  find  diffi- 
culty in  perceiving,  to  which  of  two  preceding  nouns 
some  it  or  thaty  some  they  or  those^  is  designed  to 
refer.  ^ 

However  great  may  be  the  practical  difficulty  of 
learning  to  construct  sentences  well,  every  one  can 
see  that  this  is  important.  Inexperienced  writers 
and  speakers  are  seldom  equally  impressed  with  the 
importance  of  the  paragraph.  "The  grouping  of 
sentences  into  paragraphs  is  the  true  art  of  modern 

1  Herbert  Spencer  on  Style,  p.  24. 

2  Campbell  on  Pulpit  Eloquence,  Lect.  III. 

8  See  this  matter  well  discussed  in  Campbell's  Phil,  of  Rhct 
pp.  253-265. 


372     QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY. 

prose."  ^  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  a  man  of  con- 
siderable ability  writing  an  extended  discourse  or 
essay  without  any  indication  of  paragraphs  at  all ; 
though  there  will  have  been,  in  spite  of  his  inatten- 
tion, some  natural  connection  of  the  thoughts,  and 
a  critic  or  compositor  may  succeed  in  breaking  up 
the  whole  into  rude  blocks.  Others  do  still  worse, 
for  they  indicate  paragraphs  at  hap-hazard,  often 
separating  matters  which  should  be  united.  Now 
in  some  respects  the  proper  construction  of  para- 
graphs is  more  important  than  that  of  sentences.  If 
a  sentence  is  badly  arranged,  the  reader  or  hearer 
will  at  any  rate  have  the  matter  of  it  before  his 
mind,  and  can  usually  perceive,  with  more  or  less 
effort,  what  relation  of  ideas  was  meant  to  be  ex- 
pressed. But  when  paragraphs  are  neglected,  it 
requires  a  very  broad  view  of  the  whole  connection 
of  discourse  to  supply  the  defect.  In  reading,  there 
may  be  opportunity,  if  it  is  thought  worth  while, 
to  look  back,  and  carefully  scan  the  whole,  so  as  to 
perceive  the  grouping  of  thoughts;  and  besides,  in 
reading  print,  the  compositor  has  helped  us.  But 
in  hearing,  we  have  no  help,  and  no  time  to  study 
out  the  connection.  It  is  thus  plain,  that,  especially 
in  discourse  which  has  to  be  heard,  the  proper 
management  of  paragraphs  is  indispensable  to  per- 
spicuity. 

The  prime  requisite  in  a  paragraph  is  unity. 
Genung  defines :  "  A  paragraph  is  a  connected  series 
of  sentences  constituting  the  development  of  a  single 
topic. "  2  There  must  be  some  one  thought,  or  group 
of  related  thoughts,  occupying  the  whole.  Digres- 
sions, when  made  at  all,  must  constitute  separate 
paragraphs.  This  one  thought  may  commonly  be 
presented  in  the  opening  sentence ;  or  it  may  so  pre- 
1  Earle,  Eng.  Prose,  p.  473.        ^  Practical  Rhetoric,  p.  193. 


QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  —  PERSPICUITY.     373 

sent  the  first  of  a  series  or  group  of  thoughts,  as  to 
indicate  the  character  and  purpose  common  to  them 
all.  Sometimes,  however,  the  opening  sentence  will 
be  manifestly  preparatory,  perhaps  repeating  what 
has  preceded,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  transition. 
Another  requisite  is,  that  the  successive  sentences 
should  so  grow  out  of  each  other,  or  be  so  joined 
together  by  particles,  as  to  make  the  paragraph  a 
whole.  As  to  the  length  of  paragraphs,  there  is  of 
course  no  rule,  and  the  main  thing  to  be  sought  is 
an  easy  and  natural  variety.^ 

In  the  formation  of  paragraphs,  and  also  of  sen- 
tences, careful  attention  should  be  given  to  the  con- 
junctions, and  other  connectives.  What  grammarians 
call  the  particles,  or  little  parts  of  speech,  are  not 
less  important  than  the  greater  parts,  for  they  estab- 
lish a  relation  between  these,  converting  crude  matter 
into  a  structure,  an  operative  organization  —  like 
the  joints  in  a  body.  The  felicitous  choice  of  a 
preposition  or  conjunction,  or  the  proper  handling 
of  a  relative  pronoun,  will  often  contribute  immensely 
to  the  perspicuity  of  a  sentence  or  a  paragraph.  ^ 

In  unwritten  composition,  or  what  is  called  extem- 
poraneous speaking,  it  is  practically  better,  though 
amounting  to  the  same  thing,  to  fix  the  mind  on 
points,  rather  than  on  paragraphs.  Do  not  be  think- 
ing how  you  would  distribute  this  on  pages  if  you 
were  writing,  but  arrange  a  succession  of  points  to 
be  treated.  Then  taking  up  each  of  these  in  order, 
remember  the  homely  saying,  and  "stick  to  your 
point."  One  may  thus  gain  the  unity  and  consecu- 
tiveness  which  belong  to  a  written  paragraph.     Yet 

1  The  subject  of  paragraphs  is  treated  at  length,  and  with  some 
good  examples,  by  Bain,  pp.  142-152,  and  by  Genung,  Prac.  Rhet.  p. 
193  ff.     Most  treatises  neglect  it. 

2  See,  on  the  connectives,  Campbell's  Phil,  of  Rhet.  Part  IIL 
chapters  iv.  and  v.     See  also  Bain,  as  above. 


374    QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY. 

there  is  probably  no  one  particular  in  which  a  speaker 
so  much  needs  the  discipline  of  written  composi- 
tion, as  in  respect  to  this  matter  of  consecutiveness 
in  developing  a  single  thought.  A  man  who  never 
writes  anything  may  sometimes  learn  to  frame  sen- 
tences well,  and  to  arrange  discourses  well.  He 
may  have  distinct  points,  corresponding  to  para- 
graphs, and  each  constituting  a  unit.  But  to  develop 
these  points  in  an  orderly  manner,  so  that  each  sen- 
tence may  grow  out  of  the  preceding,  or  have  a  well- 
indicated  connection  with  it,  so  that  the  developed 
unit  may  become  a  structure,  an  harmonious  organi- 
zation, this  is  what  few  men  learn  to  achieve  without 
practice  in  writing  paragraphs.  Nor  does  the  hur- 
ried writing  so  common  among  those  who  write  and 
read  their  sermons,  at  all  mend  the  matter.  Nay, 
it  requires  careful  writing,  not  hurried,  even  though 
sometimes  rapid,  and  not  put  forth  without  critical 
revision,  to  give  the  kind  of  training  which  is  needed. 
Such  careful  writing,  though  not  necessarily  of  what 
he  is  about  to  speak,  an  extemporaneous  preacher 
ought  frequently  to  practise.^ 

(3)  Perspicuity  depends  not  only  on  the  choice  of 
terms,  and  the  proper  construction  of  sentences  and 
paragraphs,  but  also  on  the  general  brevity  or  diffuse- 
ness  of  the  style. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  briefest  state- 
ment of  an  idea  is  sure  to  be  the  clearest.  If  it  be 
really  made  clear  to  the  person  addressed,  then  of 
course  the  briefer  the  better.  But  "extreme  con- 
ciseness is  ill-suited  to  hearers  or  readers  whose 
intellectual  powers  and  cultivation  are  but  small. 
.  .  .  It  is  remarked  by  anatomists,  that  the  nutri- 
tive quality  is  not  the  only  requisite  in  food;  — that 
a  certain  degree  of  distention  of  the  stomach  is  re* 

1  Comp.  below,  part  IV.  chap.  L 


QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY.     375 

quired,  to  enable  it  to  act  with  its  full  powers ;  — 
and  that  it  is  for  this  reason  hay  or  straw  must  be 
given  to  horses,  as  well  as  corn,  in  order  to  supply 
the  necessary  bulk.  Something  analogous  to  this 
takes  place  with  respect  to  the  generality  of  minds ; 
which  are  incapable  of  thoroughly  digesting  and 
assimilating  what  is  presented  to  them,  however 
clearly,  in  a  very  small  compass.  ...  It  is  neces- 
sary that  the  attention  should  be  detained  for  a 
certain  time  on  the  subject :  and  persons  of  unphilo- 
sophical  mind,  though  they  can  attend  to  what  they 
read  or  hear,  are  unapt  to  dwell  upon  it  in  the  way 
of  subsequent  meditation." 

"The  usual  expedient,  however,  of  employing  a 
prolix  style  by  way  of  accommodation  to  such  minds, 
is  seldom  successful.  Most  of  those  who  could  have 
comprehended  the  meaning,  if  more  briefly  expressed, 
and  many  of  those  who  could  not  do  so,  are  likely 
to  be  bewildered  by  tedious  expansion;  and  being 
unable  to  maintain  a  steady  attention  to  what  is  said, 
they  forget  part  of  what  they  have  heard,  before  the 
whole  is  completed.  Add  to  which,  that  the  feeble- 
ness produced  by  excessive  dilution  (if  such  an  ex- 
pression may  be  allowed),  will  occasion  the  attention 
to  languish ;  and  what  is  imperfectly  attended  to,  how- 
ever clear  in  itself,  will  usually  be  but  imperfectly 
understood.  Let  not  an  author,  therefore,  satisfy 
himself  by  finding  that  he  has  expressed  his  mean- 
ing so  that  //"attended  to,  he  cannot  fail  to  be  under- 
stood; he  must  consider  also  what  attention  is  likely 
to  be  paid  to  it.  If  on  the  one  hand  much  matter  is 
expressed  in  very  few  words  to  an  unreflecting  audi- 
ence, or  if,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  wearisome 
prolixity,  the  requisite  attention  may  very  probably 
not  be  bestowed. "  ^ 

1  Whately,  pp.  301,  302. 


376    QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  —  PERSPICUITY. 

Prolixity,  then,  is  worse  than  extreme  conciseness. 
The  latter,  though  imperfectly  understood,  may  stim- 
ulate attention  and  reflection,  and  lead  to  subsequent 
examination  of  the  subject.  The  former  does  but 
weary  and  disgust.  It  must  be  granted  that  pro- 
lixity is  very  common  in  the  pulpit.  Preachers  often 
have  to  prepare  and  preach  sermons  when  their  minds 
are  not  in  a  creative  mood.  It  seems  their  duty  to 
say  something,  and  custom  requires  that,  however 
unfruitful  the  subject  and  however  unfavorable  their 
own  state  of  mind,  they  shall  continue  for  at  least  a 
certain  number  of  minutes.^  Under  such  circum- 
stances a  man's  ideas  are  not  clear,  and  in  the  feeble 
struggle  to  express  them,  he  inevitably  becomes 
prolix. 

There  are  several  means  by  which  we  may  avoid 
too  great  conciseness  without  falling  into  prolixity. 
One  of  these  is  repetition.  In  some  cases  it  is  well 
to  repeat  the  statement,  in  the  same  words.  More 
commonly,  we  may  "repeat  the  same  sentiment  and 
argument  in  many  different  forms  of  expression; 
each  in  itself  brief,  but  all  together  affording  such 
an  expansion  of  the  sense  to  be  conveyed,  and  so 
detaining  the  mind  upon  it,  as  the  sense  may  re- 
quire." This  repetition  must  of  course  not  be  a 
mere  tautology.  The  thought  must  be  presented  in 
some  other  view  or  some  new  relation.  "What  has 
been  expressed  in  appropriate  terms  may  be  repeated 
in  metaphorical;  the  antecedent  and  consequent  of 
an  argument,  or  the  parts  of  an  antithesis  may  be 
transposed;  or  several  different  points  that  have 
been  enumerated,  presented  in  a  varied  order,  etc. "  ^ 
Another  means  is  by  varied  illustration.  After  stat- 
ing the  thought  as  clearly  as  can  be  done  within  a 
moderate  compass,  we  may  present  various  illustra- 

1  Comp.  Whately,  p.  315.  2  Whately,  pp.  302,  303. 


QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY.     37/ 

tions  of  it,  or  of  its  different  aspects.  These  interest 
the  hearer,  and  detain  his  attention  on  the  matter  in 
hand,  until  he  becomes  perfectly  familiar  with  it, 
and  yet  not  weary  of  it.  There  is  no  more  remark- 
able example  of  this  than  Chalmers.  His  sermons 
often  consist  of  a  single  idea,  which  is  held  up  in 
different  lights,  turned  over  and  over,  and  round  and 
round,  until  we  have  seen  every  facet  it  possesses; 
and  yet  each  of  these  aspects  is  made  so  bright  with 
fresh  illustration,  so  brilliant  with  hues  of  fancy, 
that  we  cannot  grow  weary.  ^  In  this,  as  in  some 
other  respects,  Chalmers  is  one  of  the  worst  models 
to  be  imitated,  but  one  of  the  most  profitable 
examples  to  be  studied.  A  third  means  of  gaining 
the  requisite  expansion  without  prolixity,  is  division. 
The  matter  presented,  however  minute,  may  often  be 
divided  into  several  points,  just  as  we  divide  larger 
topics;  and  these  points  being  successively  stated, 
the  whole  is  clearly  seen. 

And  here  let  us  emphasize  the  fact,  which  the 
preacher  cannot  too  carefully  consider,  that  as  in 
several  other  respects,  so  particularly  in  respect  to 
expansion,  the  proper  style  of  public  speaking  is 
widely  different  from  that  appropriate  to  an  essay, 
or  to  anything  designed  to  be  deliberately  read. 
This  has  been  often  stated,  and  in  the  strongest 
terms ;  as  by  De  Quincey  in  the  following  words : 

"That  is  good  rhetoric  for  the  hustings  which  is 
bad  for  a  book.  Even  for  the  highest  forms  of  pop- 
ular eloquence,  the  laws  of  style  vary  much  from  the 
general  standard.  In  the  senate,  and  for  the  same 
reason  in  a  newspaper,  it  is  a  virtue  to  reiterate 
your  meaning:  .  .  .  variation  of  the  words,  with  a 
substantial  identity  of  the  sense  and  dilution  of  the 

1  Robert  Hall  said  of  Chalmers'  sermons  that  their  movement  was 
on  hinges,  not  on  wheels. 


378     QUALITIES    OF   STYLE  — PERSPICUITY. 

truth,  is  oftentimes  a  necessity.  ...  It  is  the  advan- 
tage of  a  book,  that  you  can  return  to  the  past  page 
if  anything  in  the  present  depends  upon  it.  But 
return  being  impossible  in  the  case  of  a  spoken 
harangue,  where  each  sentence  perishes  as  it  is  born, 
both  the  speaker  and  the  hearer  become  aware  of  a 
mutual  interest  in  a  much  looser  style.  It  is  for 
the  benefit  of  both,  that  the  weightier  propositions 
should  be  detained  before  the  eye  a  good  deal  longer 
than  the  chastity  of  taste  or  the  austerity  of  logic 
would  tolerate  in  a  book. "  ^ 

Aristotle  has  distinctly  declared  the  same  thing, 
where  he  says :  — 

"And  when  they  are  compared,  the  speeches  of 
the  writers  appear  compressed  and  cramped  if  deliv- 
ered in  debate ;  but  those  of  the  orators,  after  being 
spoken  with  success,  are  commonplace  when  read  in 
private ;  and  the  reason  is,  that  in  debate  these  things 
are  appropriate.  Wherefore  also  compositions  pre- 
pared to  be  delivered,  when  the  delivery  is  wanting, 
do  not  produce  their  effect,  and  appear  ridiculous. 
Thus  the  omission  of  connectives,  and  frequent  repe- 
titions, are  in  the  written  style  rightly  rejected ;  but 
in  the  style  of  debate  even  the  orators  use  them ;  for 
they  are  adapted  to  delivery.  Yet  it  is  necessary  in 
repeating  the  same  thing  to  vary  the  expression; 
which  indeed  opens  a  way,  as  it  were,  to  the  de- 
livery: *  This  is  he  who  robbed  you;  this  is  he  who 
cheated  you ;  this  is  he  who  at  last  endeavored  to 
betray  you. '  "  ^ 

In  conclusion,  let  us  remember  that  efforts  to  be 
perspicuous  may  be  carried  too  far.  It  is  wretchedly 
tiresome  to  hear  a  man  carefully  explaining  what 
every  one  present  understands  beforehand,  or  con- 

1  De  Quincey  on  Style,  p.  69. 
«  Rhet  III.  12. 


QUALITIES   OF   STYLE  —  PERSPICUITY.     379 

tinuing  to  repeat  and  open  and  illustrate  what  he 
has  already  made  sufficiently  plain.  And  the  ora- 
torical diffuseness  just  spoken  of,  is  a  very  different 
thing  from  that  torrent  of  useless  words  which  we 
are  so  often  compelled  to  endure. 


38o  ENERGY  OF   STYLE. 


CHAPTER   III. 

ENERGY  OF  STYLE. 

THE  term  energy y  as  applied  to  style,  includes 
all  that  we  mean  by  such  separate  terms  as 
animation,  force,  and  passion.  Animation^  or  liveli- 
ness,^ serves  to  stimulate  attention;  it  is  not  enough 
for  a  speaker  to  say  what  the  hearer  may  understand 
if  he  attends;  the  point  is  to  arouse  him,  to  put  life 
into  him,  to  make  attention  easy  and  pleasant,  and 
inattention  difficult.  For  this  the  freshness  of  the 
thought,  and  the  magnetic  power  of  delivery  are  the 
chief  agents;  but  much  may  also  be  accomplished 
by  animation  of  style. ^  The  term  force  is  used 
especially  with  reference  to  arguments,  and  the  kin- 
dred -^ord  power  is  applied  both  to  arguments  and  to 
motives.  Passion  —  which  in  its  milder  and  more 
tender  forms  we  call  pathos,  and  in  its  highest  form 
the  sublime  —  has  its  effect  upon  the  feelings,  often 
by  means  of  the  imagination;  and  both  force  and 
passion  aim  at  last  to  influence  the  will.  It  is 
thus  plain,  according  to  the  view  we  have  taken  of 
eloquence,^  that  the  characteristic  property  of  an 
eloquent  style  is  energy.  Perspicuity  it  needs  in 
common  with  the  philosophical  or  didactic  style; 
elegance  it  may  possess  in  common  with  the  poetic 

1  Campbell's  term,  "  vivacity,"  is  now  restricted  to  conversation 
and  the  lighter  kinds  of  writing. 

'^  There  is  a  homely  story  of  a  preacher  who  suggested  to  a  sleepy 
hearer  that  snuff  might  keep  him  awake,  and  was  asked  in  return, 
"  Could  n't  you  put  a  little  more  snuff  into  your  sermons  ? " 

*  See  Introduction,  §  2. 


ENERGY   OF   STYLE.  381 

style;  but  energy,  that  is,  animation,  force,  or  pas- 
sion, is  its  characteristic. 

The  chief  requisite  to  an  energetic  style  is  an 
energetic  nature.  There  must  be  vigorous  thinking, 
earnest  if  not  passionate  feeling,  and  the  determined 
purpose  to  accomplish  some  object,  or  the  man's 
style  will  have  no  true,  exalted  energy.  It  is  in 
this  sense  emphatically  true  that  an  orator  is  born, 
not  made.  Without  these  qualities  one  may  give 
valuable  instruction;  without  them  one  might  preach 
what  silly  admirers  call  "beautiful"  sermons;  but  if 
a  man  has  not  force  of  character,  a  passionate  soul, 
he  will  never  be  really  eloquent.  There  are,  how- 
ever, timid  and  sensitive  men  who,  when  practice 
has  given  them  confidence  and  occasion  calls  out 
their  powers,  exhibit  far  more  of  this  masterful 
nature  than  they  had  ever  imagined  themselves  to 
possess.  Phelps^  well  says:  "Nothing  else  can 
take  the  place,  or  do  the  work,  of  this  force  of  feel- 
ing. Energy  and  enthusiasm  co-exist  in  character : 
they  must  co-exist  in  style."  He  wisely  adds,  in 
another  place,  ^  that  true  energy  is  founded  in  self- 
possession.  Extravagance  and  vehemence  by  going 
too  far  defeat  the  ends  of  a  true  eloquence.  Their 
effect  is  far  different  from  that  produced  by  an  energy 
intense  yet  restrained  by  self-mastery. 

The  next  requisite  is  something  to  say,  and  some- 
thing regarded  as  exceedingly  important.  The  mind 
must  be  full  of  thought,  if  there  is  to  be  forcible 
expression.  That  which  is  said  must  be  what  the 
speaker  heartily  believes  to  be  true,  deeply  feels  to 
be  important,  and  earnestly  desires  to  impress  upon 
others.  The  preacher  has  peculiar  advantages  in 
respect  of  materials  conducive  to  energy,  if  he  has 
a  familiar,   profound,  and  ever-freshened  acquaint- 

1  English  Style  in  Pub.  Disc.  p.  208.  *  p.  217  fif. 


382  ENERGY   OF   STYLE. 

ance  with  the  Bible.  No  temporal  interests  are  so 
momentous  as  those  of  eternity.  No  other  topics 
can  impart  to  the  mind  such  vigor  and  authority  as 
truths  which  we  personally  know  to  be  taught  in 
God's  Word.  "A  truly  mighty  sacred  orator  is 
*  mighty  in  the  Scriptures. '  '*  ^ 

Energy  of  style  must  be  considered  under  four 
heads:  the  choice  of  terms,  the  construction  of  sen- 
tences, concisenesSy  and  the  use  oi  figures.'^ 

(i)  As  to  the  choice  of  terms,  one  point  is,  that  so 
far  as  the  subject  may  admit  we  should  prefer  con- 
crete to  abstract  terms,  and  particular  or  specific  to 
general  terms.  In  philosophical  discussion,  or  in 
comprehensive  statements,  there  is  of  course  need 
for  abstract  or  for  general  terms,  but  these  are  very 
unfavorable  to  energy  of  style.  "  The  more  general 
the  terms  are,  the  picture  is  the  fainter;  the  more 
special  they  are,  it  is  the  brighter.  The  same  sen- 
timents may  be  expressed  with  equal  justness,  and 
even  perspicuity,  in  the  former  way  as  in  the  latter; 
but  as  the  coloring  will  in  that  case  be  more  languid, 
it  cannot  give  equal  pleasure  to  the  fancy,  and  by 
consequence  will  not  contribute  so  much  either  to 
fix  the  attention  or  to  impress  the  memory."  Camp- 
bell proceeds  to  illustrate  this  by  striking  examples 
from  Scripture. 

"In  the  song  of  Mbses,  occasioned  by  the  miracu- 
lous passage  of  the  Israelites  through  the  Red  Sea, 
the  inspired  poet,  speaking  of  the  Egyptians,  says, 

1  Shedd,  p.  'j^.  Comp.  pp.  73-82.  On  the  propriety  of  appealing 
to  the  passions,  compare  above,  Part  I.  chap.  ix. 

^  Some  figures,  as  metaphor  and  synecdoche,  would  of  course  fall 
under  the  head  of  choice  of  terms,  but  many  others  would  not.  The 
division  made  by  Campbell  (followed  by  Whately),  namely,  choice  of 
words,  number  of  words,  and  arrangement  of  words,  is  simple  and 
pleasing,  but  does  not  cover  the  ground.  The  divisions  suggested 
above  have  the  fault  of  not  being  mutually  exclusive,  but  are  yet 
practically  convenient. 


ENERGY  OF  STYLE.  383 

*  They  sank  as  lead  in  the  mighty  waters.  *  Make 
but  a  small  alteration  on  the  expression,  and  say, 

*  They/^//  as  metal  in  the  mighty  waters,'  and  the 
difference  in  the  effect  will  be  quite  astonishing. 
Yet  the  sentiment  will  be  equally  just,  and  in  either 
way  the  meaning  of  the  author  can  hardly  be  mis- 
taken." And  the  difference  is  wholly  due  to  the 
change  from  specific  to  general  terms.  "  *  Consider 
the  lilies  how  they  grow;  they  toil  not,  they  spin 
not;  and  yet  I  say  unto  you  that  Solomon  in  all  his 
glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these.  If,  then, 
God  so  clothe  the  grass  which  to-day  is  in  the  field 
and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven,  how  much  more 
will  he  clothe  you. '  Let  us  here  adopt  a  little  of 
the  tasteless  manner  of  modern  paraphrasts,  by  the 
substitution  of  more  general  terms,  .  .  .  and  observe 
the  effect  produced  by  this  change.  *  Consider  the 
flowers  how  they  gradually  increase  in  their  size; 
they  do  no  manner  of  work,  and  yet  I  declare  to  you 
that  no  king  whatever,  in  his  most  splendid  habit, 
is  dressed  up  like  them.  If,  then,  God  in  his  provi- 
dence doth  so  adorn  the  vegetable  productions  which 
continue  but  a  little  time  on  the  land,  and  are  after- 
ward put  into  the  fire,  how  much  more  will  he  pro- 
vide clothing  for  you. '  How  spiritless  is  the  same 
sentiment  rendered  by  these  small  variations ! "  ^ 

In  order  to  give  animation  and  passion  to  style, 
there  must  be  an  appeal  to  the  imagination.  Now 
we  can  form  images  only  of  individual  objects,  and 
the  image  of  some  individual  belonging  to  a  species, 
as  a  lily,  will  be  far  more  easily  formed  and  far  more 
vivid  than  that  of  an  individual  belonging  to  a  genus, 
as  a  flower.  2 

1  Campbell,  Phil,  of  Rhet.  pp.  307,  308.  Comp.  pp.  309-315.  See 
below  in  this  chapter,  under  the  head  of  S3mecdoche. 

*  Peculiar  point  is  often  given  to  personal  application  by  the  use 


384  ENERGY   OF   STYLE. 

Whately  points  out  that  we  are  seldom  shut  up  by 
the  nature  of  the  subject,  but  can  usually  choose 
between  generic  and  specific  terms.  Thus  the  terms 
can  be  made  more  general  than  the  subject  requires, 
and  this  is  appropriate  "  when  we  wish  to  avoid  giv- 
ing a  vivid  impression, — when  our  object  is  to 
soften  what  is  offensive,  disgusting,  or  shocking; 
as  when  we  speak  of  an  ^execution,'  for  the  inflic- 
tion of  the  sentence  of  death  on  a  criminal.  .  .  . 
Many,  especially  unpractised  writers,  fall  into  a 
feeble  style  by  resorting  unnecessarily  to  this  sub- 
stitution of  the  general  for  the  specific,  or  of  the 
specific  for  the  singular ;  either  because  they  imagine 
there  is  more  appearance  of  refinement  or  of  pro- 
fundity, in  the  employment  of  such  terms  as  are  in 
less  common  use  among  the  vulgar,  or,  in  some 
cases,  with  a  view  to  give  greater  comprehensive- 
ness to  their  reasonings,  and  to  increase  the  utility 
of  what  they  say,  by  enlarging  the  field  of  its  appli- 
cation. Inexperienced  preachers  frequently  err  in 
this  way,  by  dwelling  on  Virtue  and  Vice,  —  Piety 
and  Irreligion,  —  in  the  abstract,  without  particular- 
izing; forgetting  that  while  they  include  much,  they 
impress  little  or  nothing."  ^ 

Epithets  will  seldom  contribute  to  energy.  An 
epithet  is  an  adjective  added  to  a  noun,  or  an  adverb 

of  "thou"  instead  of  "you."  In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  there  are 
numerous  and  strikmg  instances  of  the  transition  from  general  to 
particular  by  this  means.  Let  one  compare  Matt.  v.  21  and  23;  27 
and  29;  33  and  36;  38  and  39;  vi.  i  and  2;  5  (correct  text)  and  6; 
16  and  17;  19  and  22;  vii.  i  and  3.  The  lesson  is  first  stated  in  a 
general  form,  and  then  pointed  at  an  individual  hearer.  But  observe 
that  this  is  not  kept  up  throughout  the  discourse.  That  would  look 
formal,  and  become  wearisome.  There  are  preachers  who  frequently 
employ  "  thou "  in  a  dainty,  sentimental  fashion,  which  is  a  very 
different  thing. 

1  Whately,  pp.  221,  222.  Comp.  above,  Part  I.  chap.  iii.  §  2  as  to 
general  and  particular  morality. 


ENERGY  OF   STYLE.  385 

added  to  a  verb,  which  does  not  add  anything  to  the 
sense  conveyed  by  the  noun  or  verb,  but  simply 
brings  into  prominence  something  contained  in  it. 
Now  as  commonly  managed  by  third-rate  novelists, 
'essayists,  and  orators,  epithets  never  render  the  ex- 
pression forcible.  Even  when  really  ornamental, 
they  are  appropriate  only  to  poetry  and  poetical 
prose.  If  you  cut  a  bough  from  an  apple-tree  in 
spring  to  please  your  friends  with  its  beauty,  you 
would  retain  the  twigs  and  leaves  and  blossoms ;  but 
if  you  wish  to  knock  a  man  down  with  it,  all  these 
must  be  trimmed  away.  Yet  when  properly  intro- 
duced, epithets  may  add  force.  For  instance,  they 
may  bring  to  notice  properties  of  an  object  which 
would  otherwise  have  escaped  attention,  or  cause 
the  mind  to  dwell  on  the  characteristic  thus  brought 
out,  until  it  gets  the  full  impression.  Or  they  may 
be  "  so  many  abridged  argmnents^  the  force  of  which 
is  sufficiently  conveyed  by  a  mere  hint;  for  example, 
if  any  one  says,  '  we  ought  to  take  warning  from  the 
bloody  revolution  of  France,'  the  epithet  suggests 
one  of  the  reasons  for  our  being  warned;  and  that 
not  less  clearly,  and  more  forcibly,  than  if  the  argu- 
ment had  been  stated  at  length."  ^  It  is,  however,  a 
matter  with  reference  to  which  the  young  writer  or 
speaker,  particularly  if  he  is  highly  imaginative,  has 
more  need  to  restrain  than  to  encourage  himself. 

Words  in  which  the  sound  resembles  the  sense 
(ono7natopceia)  will  sometimes  promote  energy,  but 
in  oratory  they  must  come  unsought,  if  used  at  all. 

Unusual  words  and  phrases  may  also  be  energetic, 
because  they  contrast  with  the  common  and  homely, 
so  as  to  awaken  peculiar  interest,  like  a  visitor  or  a 
foreigner.  2  Yet  if  the  visitor  be  a  reserved  stranger, 
or  the  foreigner  be  ridiculous,  the  effect  is  not  good; 

I  Whately,  p.  332  ff.  2  Comp.  Aristotle,  Rhet.  III.  f. 

25 


386  ENERGY   OF  STYLE. 

and  so  the  uncommon  expressions  must  not  be  unin- 
telligible, nor  grotesque. 

Anglo-Saxon  words  are  not  only  clearer,  as  we 
have  seen,  but  also  often  more  forcible  than  the  cor- 
responding words  of  Latin  origin.  In  some  cases 
they  are  more  specific,  the  Latin  having  furnished 
the  general  term.  In  other  cases  they  have  the 
power  of  association,  having  been  connected  in  our 
minds  from  childhood  with  real  objects  and  actions, 
while  the  Latin  term  represents  only  ideas.  Others 
are  more  forcible  because  shorter,  so  as  to  strike  a 
quicker  blow,  while,  on  the  contrary,  some  long 
Latin  words  are  energetic,  because  so  ponderous 
and  sonorous.^ 

(2)  Much  depends,  as  to  energy,  upon  the  con- 
struction of  sentences.  2 

The  periodic  structure  of  sentences  requires  special 
attention.  The  word  "  period "  signifies  a  going 
round,  a  circuit,  revolution,  etc.,  and,  strictly  speak- 
ing, a  sentence  would  be  called  a  period  when  it 
returns  at  the  close  to  the  matter  with  which  it 
began.  It  was  very  common  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
particularly  the  latter,  to  begin  with  a  noun  in  the 
nominative  case,  then  make  a  long  sentence,  con- 
sisting first  of  adjuncts  to  the  noun  and  afterwards 
of  adjuncts  to  the  verb,  and  as  the  closing  word  to 
give  the  verb.  This  would  be  strictly  a  period ;  the 
sentence  circles  round,  and  the  last  word  is  in  close 
grammatical  connection  with  the  first.  In  English 
we  seldom  give  precisely  this  form  to  long  sentences, 
except  in  the  inverted  style  of  blank  verse. 

**  The  blest  in  heaven,  above  the  starry  sphere, 
Their  happy  hours  in  joy  and  hymning  spend." 

1  Comp.  Herbert  Spencer  on  Style,  pp.  12-14.  His  theory  is 
inadequate,  but  the  facts  are  well  stated- 

2  Comp.  above,  chap.  ii.  (2). 


ENERGY   OF   STYLE.  387 

But  more  generally,  any  sentence  is  called  a  period, 
when  the  sense  is  so  suspended  as  to  be  nowhere 
complete  till  we  reach  the  last  clause.  Campbell 
gives  an  excellent  example:  **At  last,  after  much 
fatigue,  through  deep  roads,  and  bad  weather,  we 
came,  with  no  small  difficulty,  to  our  journey's  end." 
Contrast  this  with  what  is  called  the  loose  arrange- 
ment: "We  came  to  our  journey's  e7id  at  last^  with 
no  small  difficulty^  after  much  fatigue,  through  deep 
roads^  and  bad  weather."^  Here  the  sense  would 
be  complete,  and  the  sentence  might  end,  at  any 
one  of  the  five  points  indicated  by  italicized  words. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  first  form  were  made  more 
purely  periodic,  by  putting  the  verb  nearer  the  end, 
the  effect  would  not  be  so  good.  Thus:  "At  last, 
with  no  small  difficulty,  after  much  fatigue,  through 
deep  roads,  and  bad  weather,  we  came  to  our  jour- 
ney's end."  Here  so  many  particular  adjuncts  are 
strung  together  before  we  reach  the  verb,  as  to  be- 
come wearisome,  if  not  confusing.  The  first  form 
is  better.  And  in  fact,  yet  a  fourth  form  would 
make  it  in  this  respect  better  still.  Thus:  "At 
last,  with  no  small  difficulty,  and  after  much  fatigue, 
we  came,  through  deep  roads  and  bad  weather,  to  our 
journey's  end.  "^  This,  however,  differs  from  the  first 
form  as  to  the  adjuncts  which  are  first  stated,  and 
thereby  made  most  prominent;  and  this  difference 
must  slightly  affect  the  resulting  sense. 

"Periods,  or  sentences  nearly  approaching  to 
periods,  have  certainly,  when  other  things  are  equal, 
the  advantage  in  point  of  Energy.  An  unexpected 
continuation  of  a  sentence  which  the  reader  had 
supposed  to  be  concluded,  especially  if,  in  reading 
aloud,  he  had,  under  that  supposition,  dropped  his 
voice,  is  apt  to  produce  a  sensation  in  the  mind  of 

1  Phil,  of  Rhet.  p.  389.        2  Herbert  Spencer  on  Style,  pp.  26,  27. 


388  ENERGY  OF  ^STYLE. 

being  disagreeably  balked:  analogous  to  the  un- 
pleasant jar  which  is  felt,  when  in  ascending  or 
descending  stairs,  we  meet  with  a  step  more  than 
we  had  expected;  and  if  this  be  often  repeated,  as 
in  a  very  loose  sentence,  a  kind  of  weary  impatience 
results  from  the  uncertainty  when  the  sentence  is  to 
close."! 

In  speaking,  "the  periodic  style  is  much  less 
necessary,  and  therefore  much  less  suitable,  than  in 
compositions  designed  for  the  closet.  The  speaker 
may,  in  most  instances,  by  the  skilful  suspension  of 
his  voice,  give  to  a  loose  sentence  the  effect  of  a 
Period;  and  though  in  both  species  of  composition 
the  display  of  art  is  to  be  guarded  against,  a  more 
unstudied  air  is  looked  for  in  such  as  are  spoken. "  ^ 
In  fact,  very  long  periodic  sentences  are,  in  speak- 
ing, to  be  avoided.  The  hearer  must  retain  the 
whole  period  in  mind,  and  cannot  fully  understand 
any  part  of  it  until  he  reaches  the  end ;  and  undis- 
ciplined minds  will  find  this  very  difficult.^  A 
period  concentrates  its  whole  force  into  one  blow; 
but  we  must  not  gain  this  energy  by  the  sacrifice 
either  of  perspicuity  or  of  naturalness  and  ease.  It 
is  sometimes  advantageous  to  make  a  long  sentence 
partly  loose  and  partly  periodical. 

The  emphatic  arrangement  of  sentences  is  confined 
to  much  narrower  limits  in  English  than  in  many 
other  languages.  In  the  familiar  sentence,  "Will 
you  ride  to  town  to-day  t "  the  sense  will  be  differ- 
ent according  as  the  emphasis  is  laid  on  "will," 
or  on  "you,"  or  on  "ride,"  etc.  Now  in  Greek  or 
Latin,  where  the  order  of  words  in  a  sentence  can 
be  very  freely  varied,  the  emphatic  word  in  each  of 
these  cases  might  be  indicated  by  its  position.     But 

1  Whately,  p.  365.  2  /^.  p.  371. 

*  Comp.  above,  on  Perspicuity,  chap.  ii.  {2). 


ENERGY  OF  STYLE.  389 

English  idiom  does  not  permit  this;  and  the  empha- 
sis has  to  be  determined  from  the  connection,  or 
must  be  marked  by  italic  letters.  So  far  as  our 
idiom  does  allow  inversion,  we  ought  to  employ  it, 
and  dispense  with  italics.  In  speaking,  one  will 
indicate  the  emphasis  by  the  manner  of  utterance; 
but  much  is  gained  if  it  can  at  the  same  time  be 
indicated  by  the  position  of  the  words. 

The  most  prominent  position  in  a  sentence  is  the 
beginning,  and  next  to  this,  the  end.  If  now  a  word 
which,  according  to  the  common  grammatical  order, 
would  come  elsewhere,  be  placed  at  the  beginning 
or  the  end,  it  will  attract  special  attention;  it  will 
become  one  of  the  important,  the  emphatic  words  of 
the  sentence.  And  in  general,  to  put  a  word  out 
of  its  ordinary  place,  will  cause  it  to  be  specially 
noticed.  Such  inversions  of  order,  by  giving  par- 
ticular prominence  to  the  most  important  word  or 
clause,  will  often  render  a  sentence  far  more  ener- 
getic. Compare  "  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians," 
and  "Diana  of  the  Ephesians  is  great."  In  the  say- 
ing of  Peter,  "  Silver  and  gold  have  I  none,  but  such 
as  I  have,  give  I  thee,"  take  the  common  grammat- 
ical order,  "I  have  no  gold  and  silver,"  etc.,  and 
how  feeble!  Observe,  too,  that  here  our  version 
increases  the  energy  by  separating  the  adjective  none 
from  its  substantives,  and  putting  it  at  the  end  of 
the  clause,  the  other  most  emphatic  position.^  And 
not  only  may  the  predicate  thus  come  first,  for  em- 
phasis, but  many  other  inversions  are  possible. 
^^  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord, 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. "  "  Now  is 
the  accepted  time." 

Sometimes  an  emphatic  word  or  phrase  is  put  first, 
though  it  must  afterwards  be  represented  in  its  proper 

1  Campbell,  p.  378. 


390  ENERGY   OF   STYLE. 

grammatical  place  by  a  pronoun.  "Your  fathers, 
where  are  they?  and  the  prophets,  do  they  live  for- 
ever.?" How  cold  and  languid,  compared  with  this, 
would  be,  "Where  are  your  fathers?  and  do  the 
prophets  live  forever?"^  So  also,  "To  be  or  not 
to  be,  that  is  the  question."  In  other  cases,  an 
emphatic  word  which  could  not  stand  at  the  head  of 
a  sentence  is  introduced  by  some  pronominal  phrase. 
We  could  not  say,  "  Came  forth  two  bears  out  of  the 
wood,"  but  we  can  say,  "There  came  forth,"  etc.^ 
"  The  word  *  it  '  is  frequently  very  serviceable  in 
enabling  us  to  alter  the  arrangement :  thus,  the  sen- 
tence, *  Cicero  praised  Caesar,'  which  admits  of  at 
least  two  modifications  of  sense,  may  be  altered  so 
as  to  express  either  of  them  by  thus  varying  the 
order:  '  It  was  Cicero  that  praised  Caesar,'  or,  *  If 
was  Caesar  that  Cicero  praised.'  "^  There  are  also 
numerous  cases  in  which  a  convenient  inversion  may 
be  effected  by  changing  from  the  active  to  the  pas- 
sive construction.  Thus:  "There  is  a  yet  more 
signal  instance  of  ingratitude.  One  of  his  chosen 
twelve  disciples  denied  Jesus  Christ,  and  another 
betrayed  him."  Here  "Jesus  Christ"  is  most  em- 
phatic, and  ought  to  come  first.  This  could  be 
managed,  but  with  some  awkwardness,  as  follows: 
"Jesus  Christ,  one  of  his  chosen  twelve  disciples 
denied,  and  another  betrayed."  All  becomes  easy 
as  well  as  forcible  by  making  it  passive :  "  There  is 
a  yet  more  signal  instance  of  ingratitude.  Jesus 
Christ  was  denied  by  one  of  his  chosen  twelve 
disciples,  and  by  another  he  was  betrayed." 

No  sentence  ought  to  end  in  a  large  number  of 
unaccented  syllables,  as  "comparable,"  "exquis- 
itely," "  agreeableness. "     It  is  best  to  end  with  a 

1  Most  of  these  examples  are  from  Campbell,  pp.  381-383. 

2  2  Kings,  ii.  24.  »  Whately,  p.  364. 


ENERGY  OF   STYLE.  391 

word  which  accents  the  last  syllable,  or  at  any  rate 
to  have  the  accent  only  one  syllable  from  the  end. 
In  like  manner,  we  must  not  close  the  sentence 
with  a  large  number  of  unemphatic  words.  Thus : 
"I  will  give  my  own  attention  to  the  matter,"  is 
much  feebler  than  "  I  will  give  the  matter  my  own 
attention." 

Antithesis  often  adds  greatly  to  energy.  For 
example,  "  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  not  man 
for  the  Sabbath. "  "  Thou  art  anxious  and  troubled 
about  many  things :  but  one  thing  is  needful. "  "  The 
memory  of  the  just  is  blessed :  but  the  name  of  the 
wicked  shall  rot."  Such  antithetical  expressions 
abound  in  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  as  they  do  in 
the  uninspired  proverbs  of  all  nations,  their  terse- 
ness and  force  contributing  to  give  them  popularity. 
How  vigorous  is  the  saying  quoted  by  Quintilian : 
"I  do  not  live  to  eat,  I  eat  to  live."  In  all  such 
cases,  each  of  the  two  contrasted  clauses  throws 
light  upon  the  other,  so  that  without  losing  per- 
spicuity the  expressions  may  be  made  very  brief, 
and  thus  more  pointed  and  forcible;  while  at  the 
same  time  the  contrast  makes  the  whole  statement 
more  striking.  So  much  does  antithesis  contribute 
to  energy  and  brilliancy  of  style,  that  many  writers 
and  speakers  employ  it  in  great  excess.  This  dis- 
figures the  style  of  Macaulay,  which  is  in  many 
respects  so  admirable.  In  preaching,  a  manifest, 
and  especially  a  frequent  effort  to  strike^  is  particu- 
larly unbecoming.  And  besides  the  violation  of 
taste  in  the  excessive  use  of  antithesis,  there  is 
danger,  in  any  single  case,  of  violating  truth.  In 
order  strikingly  to  contrast  two  things,  we  may 
unconsciously  exaggerate  the  difference.  The  danger 
of  such  exaggeration  is  very  great,  and  it  is  a  sad 
thing  to  gain  force  at  the  expense  of  truth. 


392  ENERGY  OF   STYLE. 

One  who  speaks  under  the  influence  of  strong  feel- 
ing is  very  apt  sometimes  to  use  broken  constructions. 
He  will  be  so  absorbed  as  not  to  notice  the  syntax, 
or  after  beginning  the  sentence  in  one  way,  a  sud- 
den impulse  will  cause  him  to  break  off,  and  end  it 
in  a  different  way.  The  most  impassioned  speakers 
and  writers  naturally  employ  such  expressions  most 
frequently;  for  example,  they  are  very  common  in 
the  writings  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  Whenever  actually 
prompted  by  real  feeling,  broken  constructions  are 
admissible,  and  forcible.  But  they  must  never  be 
used  from  calculation,  and  must  not  be  allowed,  even 
when  perfectly  natural,  to  recur  too  often. 

Akin  to  this  is  what  grammarians  call  aposiopesis, 
where  part  of  a  sentence  is  suppressed  through  emo- 
tion. For  example,  Luke  xix.  42,  "If  even  thou 
hadst  known  .  .  .  the  things  that  belong  to  thy 
peace ! "  How  much  better  would  have  been  her 
destiny,  it  is  left  for  silence  to  suggest.  Luke  xxii. 
42,  "  Father,  if  thou  art  willing  to  remove  this  cup 
from  me !  "  He  does  not  go  on  to  ask  that  it  be 
removed ;  but,  after  a  pause,  he  adds,  "  Yet,  not  my 
will  but  thine  be  done."  Acts  xxiii.  9,  "We  find 
no  evil  in  this  man ;  but  if  a  spirit  spoke  to  him,  or 
an  angel — .?  "  How  expressive  was  this  silence, 
from  a  Pharisee  speaking  in  the  Sanhedrim,  in 
presence  of  the  Sadducees!  The  words,  "let  us 
not  fight  against  God,"  were  added  by  some  critic  or 
copyist,  who  understood  grammar  better  than  rhetoric. 

As  regards  the  whole  matter  of  energy  in  the  con- 
struction of  sentences,  one  may  find  great  benefit  in 
the  exercise  of  recasting  sentences.  This  would 
also  conduce,  it  is  obvious,  to  perspicuity  and  to 
elegance,  but  it  is  still  more  important  as  to  energy.^ 

1  Practical  exercises  of  this  kind  may  be  found  in  Blair's  Rhetoric, 
Lectures  XX.-XXIV.;  also  in  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  and  in  all 


ENERGY  OF   STYLE.  393 

(3)  Energy  is  greatly  promoted  by  Conciseness, 
"  It  may  be  established  as  a  maxim  that  admits  no 
exception,  that  the  fewer  the  words  are,  provided 
neither  propriety  nor  perspicuity  be  violated,  the 
expression  is  always  the  more  vivid.  *  Brevity, '  says 
Shakespeare,  *  is  the  soul  of  wit. '  Thus  much  is  cer- 
tain, that  of  whatever  kind  the  sentiment  be,  witty, 
humorous,  grave,  animated,  or  sublime,  the  more 
briefly  it  is  expressed,  the  energy  is  the  greater,  or 
the  sentiment  is  the  more  enlivened.  ...  As  when 
the  rays  of  the  sun  are  collected  into  the  focus  of  a 
burning-glass,  the  smaller  the  spot  is  which  receives 
them,  compared  with  the  surface  of  the  glass,  the 
greater  is  the  splendor;  ...  so,  in  exhibiting  our 
sentiments  by  speech,  the  narrower  the  compass  of 
words  is  wherein  the  thought  is  expressed,  the  more 
energetic  is  the  expression.  .  .  .  The  very  same 
sentiment,  expressed  diffusely,  will  be  admitted 
barely  to  be  just;  expressed  concisely,  it  will  be 
admired  as  spirited.'"^ 

There  is  no  more  remarkable  example  of  energetic 
conciseness  than  the  famous  saying  of  Caesar,  Veni, 
vidiy  viciy  "  I  came,  saw,  conquered. "  The  studied 
brevity  of  Lacedaemonian  speech  has  given  us  the 
word  laconic.  The  orators  among  the  American 
Indians  have  often  been  remarkable  for  brief,  pithy, 
pointed  sayings.  All  men,  cultivated  and  unculti- 
vated, appreciate  brevity. 

Opposed  to  conciseness  are  tautology,  pleonasm, 
and  verbosity.  Sheer  tautology,  saying  the  same 
thing  over,  even  if  in  different  words,  is  perhaps  not 
a  very  common  fault.     Pleonasm,  the  use  of  words 

the  best  works  on  composition,  such  as  Quackenbos,  Day,  Bain, 
and  others.  Care  should  be  taken  not  to  become  fastidious  about 
trifles. 

2  Campbell,  Phil,  of  Rhet.  p.  353 


394  ENERGY   OF   STYLE. 

or  phrases  which  add  nothing  to  the  sense,  is  quite 
common,  and  often  greatly  detracts  from  energy; 
though  sometimes,  as  Hervey^  points  out,  it  pro- 
motes energy.  And  verbosity,  the  multiplication  of 
words  which  add  something,  but  nothing  of  any  real 
importance,  is  surpassingly  frequent  and  hurtful.'^ 

A  certain  high-sounding  verbosity  is  apt  to  be 
greatly  admired  by  very  ignorant  or  half-educated 
people.  But  this  admiration  does  not  argue  any  real 
benefit  to  them,  nor  any  real  power  in  the  speaker. 
"  It  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  a  writer  or  speaker  of 
this  class  mentioned  as  having  *a  very  fine  command 
of  language,'  when  perhaps  it  might  be  said  with 
more  correctness  that  'his  language  has  a  command 
of  him;'  that  is,  that  he  follows  a  train  of  words 
rather  than  of  thought,  and  strings  together  all  the 
striking  expressions  that  occur  to  him  on  the  sub- 
ject, instead  of  first  forming  a  clear  notion  of  the 
sense  he  wishes  to  convey,  and  then  seeking  for  the 
most  appropriate  vehicle  in  which  to  convey  it.  He 
has  but  the  same  '  command  of  language '  that  the 
rider  has  of  a  horse  which  runs  away  with  him."  ^ 

The  Hebrew  narrative  style  is  peculiarly  diffuse 
and  circumstantial;  and  the  parallelism  of  Hebrew 
poetry  leads  to  much  repetition.  As  used  in  the 
Bible,  these  are  not  blemishes,  but  positive  excel- 
lences; but  in  our  own  speaking  and  writing  we  must 
remember  that  in  these  respects  modern  taste,  for  the 
most  part,  demands  a  different  style,  and  that  in  such 
matters  the  taste  of  our  hearers  ought  to  be  consulted. 

Tautology  and  pleonasm  may  be  corrected  by 
merely  striking  out  the  superfluous  words ;  and  this 
should  be  carefully  and  vigorously  done.     To  correct 

1  Christian  Rhetoric,  p.  617. 

2  These  faults  are  very  fully  treated  by  Campbell,  pp.  358-372. 
*  Whately,  p.  347. 


ENERGY   OF    STYLE.  395 

verbosity  it  is  often  necessary  to  recast  sentences, 
and  substitute  other  terms. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  in  seeking  concise- 
ness we  must  not  sacrifice  perspicuity.  Sometimes 
a  terse,  pointed  phrase  that  would  not  be  readily 
intelligible  to  all,  may  yet  be  employed  by  prefixing 
some  more  diffuse  statement.  "The  hearers  will 
be  struck  by  the  forcibleness  of  the  sentence  which 
they  will  have  been  prepared  to  comprehend ;  they 
will  understand  the  longer  expression,  and  remember 
the  shorter. "  ^  Interesting  examples  of  this  may  be 
seen  in  our  Lord's  teaching,  and  in  the  Epistle  of 
James.  2  In  other  cases  a  brief  statement  may  be  of 
such  a  nature  as  to  suggest  more  than  is  expressed; 
either  the  intellect  is  set  to  pursuing  a  train  of 
thought,  or  the  imagination  is  stimulated  to  fill  up 
an  outline.  Such  exercise  of  the  intellect  and  imag- 
ination, if  not  made  too  difficult,  is  highly  agreeable 
to  all;  and  the  mind  being  thus  aroused  to  grasp  the 
subject  actively,  will  hold  it  much  more  firmly  than 
if  it  had  been  passively  received.  It  is  the  highest 
type  of  style  to  be  terse,  and  suggestive.^ 

The  great  majority  of  young  speakers  and  writers 
need  with  especial  care  to  cultivate  conciseness. 
Most  of  those  who  feel  moved  to  write  or  speak  are 
naturally  fluent.  They  find  volubility  and  verbosity 
to  be  easy  to  themselves,  and  acceptable  to  many  of 
their  hearers.  An  excessive  luxuriance  of  style  is 
much  more  promising  than  extreme  barrenness ;  but, 
as  Cicero  remarked,  it  needs,  like  an  overgrowth  of 
grain  in  spring,  to  be  pastured  down  with  the  pen.* 
The  task  often  requires  rigorous  self-control.     The 

1  Whately,  p.  351. 

2  For  example,  Matt.  xix.  30,  and  xx.  16;  xxii.  14;  xxiii.  12.  Jas. 
i.  12,  17,  27;  ii.  13,  26;  ill.  18;  iv.  17;  V.  6. 

3  Comp.  Whately,  p.  356.  1  De  Oratore,  II.  21,  23. 


396  ENERGY   OF   STYLE. 

lad  who  is  thinning  com  longs  to  leave  three  stalks 
yonder  in  one  hill,  because  they  all  seem  so  large  and 
fine.  But  he  must  remember  that  three  will  make 
no  more  than  two ;  nay,  will  make  less.  Some  per- 
sons, on  the  other  hand,  should  stimulate  themselves 
to  greater  fertility  in  respect  to  style,  which  may  be 
effected  by  improving  the  imagination,  by  familiarity 
with  good  writers  whose  style  tends  to  luxuriance, 
and  by  endeavoring  to  speak  and  write  under  the 
influence  of  a  more  stirring  passion,  or  a  more  tender 
sentiment. 

And  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  while  diffuse- 
ness  is  unfavorable  to  energy,  there  may  be  2Lprofuse- 
ness,  as  in  Cicero,  Barrow,  Chalmers,  De  Quincey, 
Gladstone,  which  is  highly  energetic.  The  former 
spreads  sluggishly  over  a  wide  expanse,  the  latter 
pours  onward  in  a  rushing  torrent.  Longinus  com- 
pares the  impassioned  style  of  Demosthenes  to  a 
storm  or  a  thunderbolt,  that  of  Cicero  to  a  confla- 
gration, wide-spreading,  all-devouring,  long-contin- 
uing. Even  repetition,  which  is  often  necessary  in 
order  to  perspicuity,  and  which  many  preachers  make 
distressingly  feeble  and  tedious,  may  be  so  managed 
by  a  man  deeply  in  earnest  as  to  be  but  strong  blows 
in  quick  succession. 

(4)  Perhaps  the  chief  element  of  energy  in  style 
is  the  use  of  figures  of  speech.^  Passionate  feeling, 
whether  anger,  fear,  love,  or  the  emotion  of  the 
sublime,  naturally  expresses  itself  by  means  of  bold 

1  This  topic  may  be  found  copiously  treated  in  any  of  the  familiar 
works  on  Rhetoric,  particularly  in  such  works  as  those  of  Day,  Bain, 
Haven,  Hart,  Hill,  Genung,  and  others.  There  is  an  elaborate  dis- 
cussion of  figures  in  Hervey's  Christian  Rhetoric,  pp.  537-628.  Lord 
on  Figurative  Language  has  an  excellent  collection  of  examples  from 
Scripture,  some  of  which  are  cited  in  the  following  discussion.  Usage 
has  not  made  a  well-established  distinction  between  the  terms  figure 
and  trope,  but  the  latter  is  commonly  applied  only  to  certain  figures, 
particularly  metaphor,  metonymy,  and  synecdoche. 


ENERGY   OF   STYLE.  397 

imagery,  —  bold,  though  never  elaborate  or  far- 
fetched. 

Figures  are  sometimes  to  be  considered  rather  as 
belonging  to  the  materials  of  discourse  than  to  the 
style.  Thus,  apart  from  the  expression  of  an  idea, 
some  comparison  may  be  introduced  by  way  of  proof 
or  elucidation.  Usually,  however,  figures  are  em- 
ployed as  a  means  of  expressing  the  thought,  — 
although  they  may  add  something  to  the  expression, 
—  and  they  are  thus  properly  regarded  as  a  part  of 
style.  Figures  usually  contribute  to  elegance  of 
style,  and  some  of  them  —  comparison  especially  — 
to  perspicuity;  but  their  most  considerable  aid  is  in 
the  matter  of  energy.  Those  which  are  of  particu- 
lar importance  to  a  forcible  style  of  preaching  will 
be  briefly  discussed ;  the  student  being  referred  to 
the  works  on  Rhetoric  for  fuller  treatment  of  the 
subject  as  a  whole. 

Metaphor  is  more  conducive  to  energy  than  com- 
parison. The  latter  is  useful  in  order  to  perspicuity 
or  to  elegance,  but  is  apt  to  be  avoided  in  impas- 
sioned or  otherwise  energetic  discourse.  It  has 
been  often  remarked  that  in  Demosthenes'  great 
oration  On  the  Crown,  where  he  had  so  much  at 
stake,  and  speaks  with  such  directness  and  force  and 
vehemence,  there  is  but  a  single  comparison,  and 
that  couched  in  two  words.  Yet  comparisons  may 
sometimes,  from  the  nature  of  the  subject-matter, 
be  exceedingly  impressive.  "His  eyes  were  as  a 
flame  of  fire,  and  his  voice  as  the  sound  of  many 
waters."  "As  the  lightning  cometh  out  of  the  east, 
and  shineth  even  unto  the  west,  so  shall  the  coming 
of  the  Son  of  man  be."  "The  ungodly  .  .  .  are 
like  the  chaff  which  the  wind  driveth  away." 

The  metaphor  assumes  or  implies  a  resemblance 
or  an  analogy  without  stating  it,  as  in  the  compari- 


39^  ENERGY   OF    STYLE. 

son,  and  is  thus  more  condensed  and  terse.  Thus 
to  say  of  an  eloquent  speaker  that  he  is  like  a  soar- 
ing eagle,  would  be  a  comparison ;  to  say  that  when 
he  is  at  his  best  he  is  a  soaring  eagle,  would  be  a 
metaphor.  Where  a  metaphor  would  not  be  readily 
intelligible,  it  may  be  combined  with  a  comparison 
or  made  plain  by  some  additional  term.  A  great 
multitude  of  metaphors  have  become  so  familiar, 
that  they  no  longer  possess  any  special  force;  but 
in  the  many  that  never  wear  out,  and  in  the  unlim- 
ited range  of  new  invention  and  combination,  meta- 
phors present  to  the  orator  an  inexhaustible  source 
of  energetic  expression.  It  is  imagination  that  must 
produce  them,  and  good  taste  that  must  regulate  their 
use.  Inexperienced  speakers  often  employ  meta- 
phors that  are  incongruous  in  themselves,  or  carried 
out  into  ridiculous  or  wearisome  detail.  But  much 
will  depend  on  subject,  occasion,  and  feeling.  Even 
Shakespeare's  often  condemned  example  of  a  mixed 
metaphor, — 

"  To  take  arms  against  a  sea  of  troubles," 

is  allowable  and  natural  in  Hamlet,  when  frenzied  and 
meditating  suicide,  and  speaking  to  himself  alone.  ^ 

The  synecdoche  is  also  favorable  to  energy.  When 
a  part  of  a  thing  is  taken  for  the  whole,  or  the  species 
for  the  genus,  the  expression  is  apt  to  be  more  ani- 
mated and  suggestive;  just  as  we  have  already  seen 
that  particular  or  specific  terms  are  more  energetic 
than  general  terms.  "They  shall  beat  their  swords 
into  ploughshares,  and  their  spears  into  pruning- 
hooks,"  is  immensely  more  forcible  than  to  say  in 
general  that  they  will  convert  their  weapons  of  war 
into  implements  of  agriculture. 

Hyperbole^  or  saying  more  than  is  meant,  is  very 
natural  to  a  person  so  absorbed  in  the  contemplation 

1  Comp.  Haven's  Rhet.  p.  iii. 


ENERGY   OF    STYLE.  399 

of  a  particular  object  or  subject  as  to  exaggerate 
its  comparative  importance,  or  to  one  so  intensely 
excited  that  all  ordinary  expression  seems  to  him 
tame.  It  is  also  allowable  in  any  case  where  one 
knows  that  the  exaggerated  language  need  not  be 
misunderstood,  and  desires  to  make  a  deep  impres- 
sion as  to  an  important  fact.  "  And  there  are  also 
many  other  things  which  Jesus  did,  the  which,  if 
they  should  be  written  every  one,  I  suppose  that 
even  the  world  itself  could  not  contain  the  books  that 
should  be  written "  (John  xxi.  25).  Such  expres- 
sions are  particularly  natural  to  the  fervid  Oriental 
mind,  and  they  have  great  power  with  the  masses  of 
men.  The  Apostle  Paul  is  remarkable  for  hyper- 
boles, and  for  strong  language  of  every  kind.  His 
impassioned  expression,  "I  could  wish  that  myself 
were  accursed  from  Christ  for  my  brethren  "  (Rom. 
ix.  3),  is  best  understood  as  an  instance  of  hyper- 
bolical language,  and  can  be  appreciated  only  in 
proportion  as  we  sympathize  with  his  patriotic  and 
pious  ardor  and  devotion.  Our  Lord's  teaching  has 
a  singular  and  very  striking  peculiarity  in  the  use  of 
extreme  cases  to  set  forth  a  principle.  "  Whosoever 
shall  smite  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the 
other  also."  When  he  himself  was  smitten  on  the 
cheek,  we  do  not  read  that  he  turned  the  other.  It 
was  an  extreme,  hyperbolical  way  of  stating  the 
injunction  not  to  strike  back;  and  though  some- 
times misunderstood  and  misrepresented,  the  state- 
ment is  one  which  no  man  ever  forgets.  Compare 
the  expressions,  "  Let  not  thy  left  hand  know  what 
thy  right  hand  doeth,"  "  If  any  man  come  to  me,  and 
hate  not  his  father  and  mother,"  etc.  (Matt.  vi.  3; 
Luke  xiv.  26).  As  a  teacher  of  men,  our  Lord  used 
a  great  variety  of  expedients  for  stimulating  their 
languid  attention,  for  compelling  them  to  remember 


400  ENERGY  OF   STYLE. 

and  reflect.  Many  a  phrase  of  his  fails  to  be  under- 
stood unless  we  bear  this  in  mind;  and  his  example 
shows  that  such  efforts  may  be  made  in  a  spirit  and 
tone  wholly  unlike  that  of  "sensation  "  preachers.^ 

Personification^  representing  or  addressing  an  in- 
animate object  as  if  it  had  life,  sometimes  imparts 
to  discourse  great  animation  and  beauty,  and  even 
passionate  energy.  Examples  of  it  abound  in  the 
Scriptures,  as  well  as  in  all  poetry  and  oratory. 
The  personification  of  Wisdom  in  the  Proverbs  of 
Solomon  is  very  striking.  Personifications  of  the 
Church  are  often  carried  further  in  preaching  than 
is  wise.  Our  language  presents  unusual  facilities 
for  this  figure,  from  its  unique  peculiarity  of  treat- 
ing all  names  of  things  as  of  the  neuter  gender,  so 
that  to  call  an  inanimate  object  "he"  or  "she"  will 
at  once  make  a  personification.  We  must  be  care- 
ful not  to  abuse  this  advantage.  All  high -wrought 
imagery  must  be  sparingly  employed.  ^ 

Apostrophe^  which  is  sometimes  confounded  with 
personification,  consists  in  "turning  away"  from  our 
audience,  and  addressing  some  person  or  thing, 
usually  one  of  which  we  had  been  speaking.  If  it 
be  a  thing  that  is  thus  addressed,  there  is  also  a  per- 
sonification. "It  cannot  be  that  a  prophet  perish 
out  of  Jerusalem.  O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  which 
killest  the  prophets,"  etc.  (Luke  xiii.  33).  But 
there  may  be  apostrophe  to  a  real  person,  and  there 
is  often  personification  when  we  only  speak  of  the 
object  personified,  without  addressing  it.  Apos- 
trophe properly  belongs  to  the  language  of  passion, 
and  even  as  such,  it  must  not  occur  too  frequently, 
nor   be  too  long  continued.     A  preacher  standing 

1  As  to  the  danger  of  our  falling  into  extravagance,  see  near  tha 
end  of  this  chapter. 

2  Comp.  Whately,  pp.  328-330;  Haven,  pp.  145-15S 


ENERGY   OF   STYLE.  4OI 

With  upturned  eyes,  and  addressing  some  Scripture 
character,  departed  friend,  or  personified  virtue,  can- 
not go  on  through  many  sentences. 

Exclamation  is  sometimes  akin  to  apostrophe, 
but  properly  distinct.  Impassioned  preachers  are 
somewhat  apt  to  use  it  too  freely.  Some  say  oh ! 
ah !  or  alas !  so  often  that  it  loses  all  power.  Others 
indulge  too  much  in  such  exclamations  as:  How 
grand!  Momentous  issue!  Fearful  thought!  and 
the  like.  On  the  other  hand,  we  must  not  be  over- 
fastidious  in  avoiding  exclamation,  where  it  is  natu- 
rally prompted  by  actual  feeling. 

Interrogation  is  with  all  orators  a  frequent  means 
of  giving  animation  to  discourse.  Not  only  may  an 
antagonist,  real  or  imaginary,  be  questioned,  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  awaken  lively  interest  on  the  part  of 
the  hearers,  but  questions  are  constantly  addressed 
to  the  hearers  themselves.  Their  minds  are  thus 
aroused  somewhat  as  if  called  on  actually  to  answer. 
It  should  be  observed  that  one  is  liable  sometimes  to 
fall  as  it  were  into  an  interrogative  mood,  and  throw 
so  much  of  his  discourse  into  the  form  of  questions, 
as  to  produce  the  most  disagreeable  species  of  mo- 
notony. It  is  important  to  be  on  our  guard  against 
this,  and  when  upon  any  occasion  conscious  of  it,  to 
break  away  by  a  resolute  effort. 

Dramatism  gives  to  discourse  a  life  and  vigor  and 
charm  that  can  in  scarcely  any  other  way  be  equalled. 
To  personate  some  character  and  speak  his  senti- 
ments, to  introduce  an  objector  stating  his  objections, 
and  answer  them  point  by  point,  to  sustain  a  dialogue 
between  two  supposed  persons,  to  reproduce  some 
scene  by  dramatic  description,  are  methods  which  all 
effective  speakers  more  or  less  employ,  and  examples 
of  which  abound  in  Demosthenes,  Chrysostom,  Spur- 
geon.     In  the  pulpit,  dramatism  must  usually  be  kept 

26 


402  ENERGY   OF   STYLE. 

within  somewhat  narrow  limits,  and  must  always  be 
regulated  by  good  taste  and  sobriety  of  feeling. 
Especially  do  imitations  of  action  and  tone  require  to 
be  carefully  guarded,  lest  they  become  ridiculous,  or 
at  any  rate  unsuitable  to  devout  discourse.^ 

As  to  the  whole  matter  of  energy  of  style,  grave  mis- 
takes are  often  committed.  Some  speakers  imagine 
that  they  must  be  energetic  in  style  and  manner  even 
when  it  does  not  suit  the  subject,  or  does  not  accord 
wvth  their  actual  feelings.  Now  it  is  only  strong  feel- 
ing that  prompts  impassioned  or  in  any  wise  energetic 
expression.  To  gain  the  latter  we  must  cultivate  our 
sensibilities,  and  must  keep  the  mind  in  contact  with 
the  subject  to  be  treated  until  the  corresponding 
emotions  are  excited.^  If  little  or  no  emotion  really 
exists,  the  language  of  passion  produces  no  effect,  or 
even  a  contrary  effect  to  that  desired.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  important  lessons  a  preacher  can  learn,  not 
to  assume  earnestness  of  style  or  delivery,  when  he 
has  not  earnestness  of  feeling. 

Another  serious  and  very  common  mistake  is  in 
the  effort  to  maintain  uniform  energy  throughout  a 
discourse.  "  An  author  should  guard  against  the 
vain  ambition  of  expressing  everything  in  an  equally 
high-wrought,  brilliant,  and  forcible  style.  The  neglect 
of  tliis  caution  often  occasions  the  imitation  of  the 
best  models  to  prove  detrimental.  When  the  admir- 
ation of  some  fine  and  animated  passages  leads  a 
young  writer  to  take  these  passages  for  his  general 
model,  and  to  endeavor  to  make  every  sentence  he 
composes  equally  fine,  he  will,  on  the  contrary,  give 
a  flatness  to  the  whole,  and  destroy  the  effect  of  those 
portions  which  would  have  been  forcible  if  they  had 
been  allowed  to  stand  prominent     To  brighten  the 

1  Comp.  Vinet,  pp.  459-465. 

2  Comp.  above  on  Application,  Part  I.  chap.  ix. 


ENERGY   OF   STYLE.  403 

dark  parts  of  a  picture,  produces  much  the  same 
result  as  if  one  had  darkened  the  bright  parts;  in 
either  case  there  is  a  want  of^  relief  and  co7itrast ;  and 
Composition,  as  well  as  Painting,  has  its  lights  and 
shades,  which  must  be  distributed  with  no  less  skill, 
if  we  would  produce  the  desired  effect."  ^ 

In  highly  passionate  speaking  there  must  be  variety, 
alternation.  In  any  intense  physical  exertion,  one 
needs  frequent  change  of  posture,  so  as  to  bring  dif- 
ferent muscles  into  play,  and  let  them  relieve  each 
other.  The  same  thing  is  true  as  to  mental  excite- 
ment.2  Neither  the  hearers,  nor  even  the  speaker 
himself,  can  keep  up  a  very  high  excitement  for  more 
than  a  brief  period,  certainly  not  in  a  natural  and 
healthy  way.  Now  the  most  complete  alternation 
here  would  be  from  pathos  or  passion  to  humor. 
The  humorous  writers  and  speakers  almost  always 
introduce  pathetic  passages  merely  for  relief,  and  vice 
versa  the  principle  applies  equally  well.  But  the 
preacher  cannot  relieve  the  minds  of  his  hearers  by 
any  but  rare  and  delicate  touches  of  humor.  He 
may,  however,  again  and  again  descend  from  the 
impassioned  to  the  quiet  and  easy,  may  cause  passion 
to  swell  by  successive  waves,  receding  in  order  to 
advance  farther;  and  he  must  in  other  ways  vary  the 
emotions  excited,  just  so  far  as  will  be  compatible 
with  his  specific  design. 

And  great  mistakes  are  also  made  as  to  what  con- 
stitutes energy  of  style.  There  is  a  jerky,  convulsive 
energy,  like  that  of  Carlyle,  which  is  by  no  means 
worthy  of  imitation.  There  is  an  over-wrought, 
exaggerated  energy,  which  Longinus  describes  as 
"  not  sublime,  but  sky-scraping,"  and  a  turgid,  in- 
flated, would-be  energy,  which  is  nothing  but  bom- 
bast.    And   in   this   stirring   age,   especially  among 

1  Whately,  p.  334.  2  Corap.  Spencer  on  Style,  p.  36. 


404  ENERGY  OF   STYLE. 

our  American  people,  there  is  a  tendency  to  be 
prodigiously  excited  upon  small  occasion,  to  use 
superlatives,  exaggerated  epithets,  and  impassioned 
imagery,  where  they  are  unnecessary,  and  therefore 
inappropriate.^ 

1  Comp.  above,  Part  III.  chap.  i.  §  i.  In  the  Dialogue  de  Ora- 
toribus  (printed  with  the  works  of  Tacitus),  chap.  xx.  22,  there  may 
be  found  a  remarkable  account  of  the  false  taste  prevailing  about 
A.  D.  75,  which  was  constantly  essaying  to  strike  or  to  dazzle,  and 
which  reckoned  Cicero  tame  and  dull.  The  author  (chaps,  xv.-xxi.) 
gives  a  picture  of  notions  much  like  those  which  now  so  widely  exist, 
—  an  age  which  thinks  it  knows  everything,  which  is  impatient  of 
instruction  or  careful  argument,  and  craves  a  quick  succession  of 
striking  sayings.  In  our  time  one  of  the  great  hindrances  to  true 
eloquence  is  the  restlessness  of  the  people,  giving  little  opportunity 
for  the  repose  and  the  alternations  which  are  indispensable  to  high 
eloquence. 


ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE.  405 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE. 

ELEGANCE  of  style  is  the  product  of  imagination, 
alone  or  in  combination  with  passion,  and 
operating  under  the  control  of  good  taste.  Any 
exercise  of  taste  comprises  an  emotion  and  a  judg- 
ment. The  emotion  excited  by  beauty  or  by  its 
opposite,  is  involuntary ;  but  the  judgment  that  a  cer- 
tain object,  idea,  or  expression  is  beautiful  or  the 
contrary,  can  be  controlled  and  corrected,  and  the 
internal  standard  by  which  we  judge,  admits  of  inde- 
finite improvement.  He  who  would  attain  elegance 
of  style,  then,  must  on  the  one  hand  cultivate  imagi- 
nation and  sensibility,  and  on  the  other  must  seek,  by 
thoughtful  contemplation  of  the  truly  beautiful,  to 
improve  his  taste.^ 

Elegance,  in  speaking,  is  less  important  than  per- 
spicuity or  energy,  but  it  greatly  contributes  to  the 
objects  of  even  the  most  serious  discourse.  Real 
elegance  will  of  course  be  widely  modified  by  subject, 
occasion,  and  design ;  and  thus  modified,  it  is  free  from 
all  just  objection,  and  worthy  of  very  earnest  pursuit. 

Aristotle  remarks :  **  The  first  style  of  rhetoric  was 
formed  on  that  of  poetry,  witness  the  style  of  Gorgias ; 
and  even  at  the  present  time  the  majority  of  ignorant 
people  fancy  that  such  orators  speak  most  delight- 
fully ;  this  however  is  not  the  case,  but  the  style  of 
poetry  and  that  of  prose  is  distinct."  ^     The  principal 

^  Comp.  above,  Part  III.  chap.  i.  §  2,  (2),  on  Improvement  in  Style. 
Rhet.  HI.  I. 


406  ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE. 

object  of  the  poet  is  to  give  pleasure;  that  of  the 
orator  is  to  convince,  impress,  persuade.  For  the 
former,  beauty  is  the  most  important  element  of 
style ;  for  the  latter,  it  is  thoroughly  subordinate  to 
perspicuity  and  force.  There  is  a  similar,  though 
not  equal  difference  between  a  history  and  a  romance. 
In  holiday  speeches,  and  all  set  orations,  to  please 
becomes  a  more  prominent  object,  and  here  the  style 
of  poetry  is  more  nearly  approached. 

This  important  difference  between  oratory  and 
poetry  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  Adam  Smith,^  who 
contrasts  dancing  with  walking,  and  singing  with 
speaking.  To  walk  as  if  dancing,  or  speak  as  if  sing- 
ing, would  be  ridiculous  affectation.  But  in  a  dance, 
graceful  and  measured  movement  in  order  to  please 
is  "  the  proper  purpose  of  the  action,"  and  so  in  a 
song,  the  rhythmical  modulation  of  the  voice.  But  in 
a  speech  the  case  is  different.  "  In  speaking,  as  in 
every  other  ordinary  action,  we  expect  and  require 
that  the  speaker  should  attend  to  the  proper  purpose 
of  the  action,  —  the  clear  and  distinct  expression  of 
what  he  has  to  say.  In  singing,  on  the  contrary, 
every  one  professes  the  intention  to  please  by  the 
tone  and  cadence  of  his  voice;  and  he  not  only 
appears  to  be  guilty  of  no  disagreeable  affectation  in 
doing  so,  but  we  expect  and  require  that  he  should 
do  so." 

So  in  poetry  the  "  proper  purpose "  is  to  give 
pleasure ;  and  we  simply  require  that  it  be  skilfully 
adapted  to  that  purpose.  If  poetry  also  Instructs,  or 
moves  to  action,  that  is  usually  subordinate  to  its 
main  design.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  novels,  and 
all  other  prose  writings  belonging  to  what  is  called 
**  light  literature."  But  in  oratory,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  proper  purpose  is  very  different,  and  entertain* 

1  Quoted  by  Whately,  p.  386. 


ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE.  407 

ment,  the  gratification  of  taste,  has  place  only  as  sub- 
sidiary to  conviction  and  persuasion.  Especially  is 
this  true  of  the  preacher,  who  ought  to  have  every- 
where a  practical  and  thoroughly  serious,  if  not  a 
uniformly  solemn  purpose.  And  to  preaching  be- 
yond almost  every  other  variety  of  public  speaking, 
applies  the  following  instructive  quotation  from 
Henry  Rogers :  — 

"  If  a  speaker  is  in  earnest,  he  never  employs  his 
imagination  as  the  poet  does,  merely  to  delight  us, 
nor  indeed  to  delight  us  at  all  —  except  as  appropri- 
ate imagery,  though  used  for  another  object,  neces- 
sarily imparts  pleasure.  For  this  reason,  illustrations 
are  selected  always  with  reference  to  their  force 
rather  than  their  beauty;  and  are  very  generally 
marked  more  by  their  homely  propriety  than  by  their 
grace  and  elegance.  .  .  .  Everything  marks  the  man 
intent  upon  serious  business,  whose  sole  anxiety  is  to 
convey  his  meaning  with  as  much  precision  and 
energy  as  possible  to  the  minds  of  his  auditors."  ^ 

We  can  thus  easily  understand  why  some  preachers 
care  too  much  for  embellishment.  They  take  a 
wrong  view  of  their  office,  or  at  any  rate  are  influenced 
by  a  wrong  motive.  They  aim  too  much  at  entertain- 
ing,  at  gratifying  the  audience.  They  do  not  feel  the 
seriousness  of  their  work,  the  solemnity  of  their  posi- 
tion. While  perhaps  really  desiring  to  do  good,  they 
dwell  too  much  on  the  necessity  of  pleasing  the 
people  in  order  to  profit  them.  And  aware  that 
many  hearers  care  only,  or  chiefly,  to  be  entertained, 
aware  that  they  talk  in  going  home  not  of  the  truth, 
but  of  the  performance  and  the  performer,  such 
preachers  too  readily  yield  to  this  apparent  demand, 
and  make  it  a  distinct  if  not  a  principal   object  to 

1  On  Sacred  Eloquence,  in  "  Reason  and  Faith  and  Other  Essays," 
p.  213. 


408  ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE. 

please  their  hearers.  But  if  the  earnest  desire  to  do 
men  good  quite  swallows  up  the  wish  to  please  them, 
if  the  sense  of  responsibility  to  God  rises  superior  to 
concern  for  men's  criticism,  then  the  preacher's  style 
will  have  only  such  modest  beauty  as  is  easily  kept  in 
its  proper  place.  And  when  he  is  tempted  to  yield 
to  the  false  taste  of  many,  it  may  help  him  to  remem- 
ber that  the  desire  to  please  is  very  apt  to  defeat  it- 
self. His  elaborate  prettinesses  will  not  only  grieve 
the  devout  and  disgust  the  really  intelligent,  but  will 
soon  pall  upon  the  taste  of  those  whom  he  seeks  to 
win,  who  will  have  all  the  while  in  their  hearts  a 
vague  feeling  that  this  sort  of  thing  is  unworthy  of 
him,  and  will  presently  begin  to  find  it  rather  tiresome 
to  themselves.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  some  preachers  very  unwisely 
take  pains  to  avoid  the  beautiful.  There  are  thoughts 
which  naturally  incline  to  blossom  into  beauty;  why 
sternly  repress  them }  There  are  grand  conceptions 
which  spontaneously  clothe  themselves  in  robes  of 
majesty,  and  march  forth  in  a  stately  but  native 
dignity.  And  besides  subjects  that  naturally  shine 
and  blaze,  there  are  many  very  commonplace  topics 
which  the  preacher  must  be  constantly  bringing  to 
view,  and  which  will  gain  a  much  more  interested 
attention,  from  even  the  most  devout  hearers,  if  deli- 
cately touched  with  some  hues  of  fancy.  It  is  a 
noble  thing  thus  to  take  important  truths  which  have 
grown  dull  by  use,  and  give  them  new  brightness. 
This  must  not  go  so  far  that  the  attention  of  the 
speaker,  and  so  that  of  the  hearers,  is  drawn  to  the 
beauteous  garb  rather  than  to  the  truth  itself.  Far 
better  leave  the  truth  unadorned,  to  win  such  notice 
as  it  can. 2      But  this  excess  will  be  readily  avoided, 

1  Comp.  Vinet,  p.  349. 

2  Comp.  as  to  Illustrations,  Part  I.  chap.  viii.  §  3. 


ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE.  409 

if  one  has  good  taste  and  a  serious  purpose.  Vinet 
has  well  said  that  the  really  beautiful  excludes  the 
pretty. 

They  who  are  so  afraid  of  elegance,  forget  that  a 
native  beauty,  and  even  some  ornament  of  style,  is 
not  of  necessity  unfavorable  to  perspicuity.  ^  They 
forget  that  the  beautiful  and  the  useful  are  in  nature 
often  closely  connected;  that  the  blossoms  of  the 
apple-tree,  and  the  silks  of  the  corn,  are  remarkable 
for  their  rich  and  varied,  but  delicate  beauty.  The 
fanciful  style  of  some  preachers  is  as  little  appropri- 
ate as  if  one  who  was  called  to  build  the  family  a 
home,  should  build  a  garden  bower;  but  a  family 
mansion  may  be  thoroughly  suited  to  convenience 
and  comfort,  and  yet  have  a  pleasing  form,  and  even 
a  certain  moderate  ornamentation. 

True  energy  of  style  is  often  at  the  same  time 
elegant.  Impassioned  feeling  often  cannot  express 
itself  otherwise  than  by  bold  images,  and  these, 
though  chosen  for  their  strength,  may  also  have  an 
unstudied  beauty.  A  painted  cheek  is  an  abomina- 
tion; but  let  there  be  high  health,  and  animated 
feeling,  and  without  an  effort  or  a  thought  the  cheek 
takes  to  itself  a  color  most  bright  and  fair.  The 
Creator  meant  that  it  should  be  so;  are  you  wiser 
than  the  Creator? 

It  should  be  added  that  quotations,  whether  of 
verse  or  prose,  which  are  made  merely  or  even 
chiefly  for  their  beauty,  can  never  be  appropriate 
in  preaching.  The  flowers  suitable  in  serious  dis- 
course are  never  artificial  flowers.  Especially  unbe- 
coming is  the  introduction  of  ornamental  passages 
from  poets  well  known  to  be  grossly  irreligious. 
Some  preachers  make  themselves  worse  than  ridicU' 
lous  by  "  spouting  "  Byron. 

1  Comp.  Whately,  p.  305. 


4IO  ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE. 

Elegance  of  style  depends  especially  upon  terms, 
arrangement y  and  imagery ;  and  there  is  much  true 
elegance  in  that  simplicity  of  style  which  is,  on  every 
account,  so  much  to  be  desired. 

(i)  The  most  energetic  terms  are  often  at  the  same 
time  the  most  elegant;  so  that  we  gain  the  latter 
excellence  while  seeking  the  former.^  But  this  is 
not  always  the  case.  Some  highly  forcible  expres- 
sions have  to  be  avoided  because  they  are  indecent 
or  vulgar.  And  if  ever  slang  phrases  are  employed 
by  a  preacher,  it  ought  to  be  under  very  peculiar 
circumstances.  Ideas  which  are  too  painful  must 
not  be  expressed  in  the  most  forcible  terms,  but 
softened.  The  use  of  words  too  grand  for  the  sub- 
ject, is  a  very  common  offence  against  elegance. 
Whether  an  energetic  expression  shall  be  rejected 
because  inelegant  is  a  question  on  which  no  general 
rule  can  be  given ;  each  case  must  be  decided  on  its 
own  merits.  Many  of  the  most  effective  speakers 
have  been  accused  by  fastidious  persons  of  vulgar- 
isms; for  example,  Cicero,  Burke,  Patrick  Henry, 
Webster,  Luther,  Whitefield,  and  others.  But  words 
which  really  weaken  the  expression  or  do  not  at 
all  strengthen  it,  must  scarcely  ever  be  employed 
because  of  their  supposed  elegance. 

John  Foster,  in  one  of  his  celebrated  Essays,  urges 
very  earnestly  that  one  reason  for  the  aversion  of 
men  of  taste  to  evangelical  religion,  is  the  too  fre- 
quent employment  in  preaching  of  the  technical 
terms  of  theology,  and  the  language  of  Scripture. 
He  himself  took  great  pains  to  avoid  both.  No 
doubt  there  is  sometimes  an  excessive  multiplica- 
tion of  such  terms,  giving  the  sermon  a  dialect  quite 
different  from  the  language  of  ordinary  life,  and  this 

1  Comp.  the  discussion  of  energetic  terms  in  the  foregoing 
chapter. 


ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE.  411 

error  good  taste  must  correct.  But  "  the  aversion  of 
men  of  taste  to  evangelical  religion  "  is  much  more 
largely  the  cause  than  the  effect  of  this  dislike  to 
theological  and  scriptural  terms.  They  wish  us  to 
tone  down  and  refine  avv^ay  the  characteristic  ideas 
of  Scripture.  1 

(2)  As  to  the  arrangement  oi  words,  ^  we  must  of 
course  avoid  harsh  or  disagreeable  combinations, 
unless  they  are  necessary  in  order  to  energy.  The 
English  language  is  specially  liable  to  the  frequent 
recurrence  of  hissing  sounds,  s,  z,  sh,  ch,  etc.^  Thus 
the  phrase,  "in  Jesus's  name,"  has  an  unpleasant 
sound. 

It  is  also  of  some  importance  to  avoid  the  too  fre- 
quent repetition  of  a  word  in  the  same  sentence  or 
paragraph.  Modern  taste  is  more  fastidious  about 
this  than  was  that  of  the  ancients.  VVe  must  not, 
through  mere  desire  for  variety,  sacrifice  anything 
important  to  the  sense,  a  fault  into  which  our  com- 
mon English  version  has  very  often  fallen.  Thus  in 
Romans,  chapter  iv.,  the  word  "reckon"  occurs  very 
often,  being  the  leading  term  of  the  argument;  but 
our  version  renders  by  three  different  words,  "  count," 
"reckon,"  and  "impute,"  thus  seriously  obscuring  the 
verbal  connection,  with  no  gain  but  that  of  variety. 
Where,  however,  the  connection  of  our  discourse 
does  not  really  require  the  repetition  of  the  same 
word,  it  should  be  suitably  varied.  There  is  in 
English  special  danger  that  certain  pronouns,  par- 
ticularly it,  that,  and  which,  and  the  preposition  ofy 
will  be  too  often  repeated  in  quick  succession. 

1  On  the  advantages  of  a  "  Scriptural  tone "  in  sermons,  see 
Vinet,  p.  420. 

2  The  number  of  words  is  here  a  matter  of  subordinate  importance ; 
there  may  be  an  elegant  conciseness  or  an  elegant  diffuseness,  though 
the  former  is  best  for  energy,  and  often  best  for  perspicuity. 

*  Foreigners  sometimes  call  it  the  "  snake  language." 


412  ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE. 

Antithesis  will  frequently  contribute  to  elegance, 
as  well  as  to  energy;^  but  if  used  too  freely,  it  tends 
to  stiffness,  or  to  monotony. 

Alliteration  was  a  leading  peculiarity  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  poetry,  and  is  still  somewhat  frequently  em- 
ployed in  poetry  and  even  in  prose.  Chalmers  was 
very  fond  of  it.  In  prose,  especially  in  preaching, 
it  should  be  used  but  rarely,  and  in  an  easy,  unstudied 
fashion. 

Sentences  are  of  course  most  elegant  when  smooth 
and  flowing.  But  better  harsh  strength  than  smooth 
weakness.  "  You  may  break  grammar,  if  you  break 
hearts."  And  a  constant  succession  of  smooth  and 
graceful  sentences  will  inevitably  become  monoto- 
nous. Gibbon  wearies  by  his  uniform  stateliness. 
Even  Prescott's  style  would  be  improved  by  the 
occasional  introduction  of  sentences  quite  different 
in  pattern. 

The  parts  of  a  sentence  are  often  so  proportioned 
as  to  give  it  a  rhythmical  movement.  Excited  feel- 
ing naturally  tends  to  rhythmical  expression,  as  is 
sometimes  seen  even  in  voice  and  gesture.  The 
metre  of  poetry  is  one  species  of  rhythm.  The  per- 
fectly regular  recurrence  of  the  same  movements  is, 
however,  too  labored  and  deliberate  a  thing  to  be 
natural  in  speaking.  Accordingly,  as  Aristotle  re- 
marks, the  rhythm  of  oratory  must  never  become 
metre.  The  only  exception,  if  there  be  one,  is  in 
eulogistic  orations  and  the  like,  where  there  is  high- 
wrought  but  somewhat  artificial  feeling,  and  where, 
as  in  poetry,  the  principal  object  is  to  please. ^    It 


1  Comp.  in  the  preceding  chapter. 

2  In  some  pathetic  passages  of  Dickens,  a  whole  paragraph  might 
be  cut  up  into  blank  verse,  without  changing  a  word.  So  in  Black- 
more's  "  Lorna  Doone."  But  this  would  be  intolerable  in  an  appeal 
to  a  jury,  or  in  a  sermon. 


ELEGANCE    OF   STYLE.  413 

is  not  proper,  in  order  to  rhythm  in  prose,  to  throw 
in  clauses  simply  for  that  purpose,  as  is  often  done 
by  Johnson  and  his  imitators;^  but  the  expressions 
may  be  so  chosen  and  so  coordinated  as  to  give  the 
whole  a  rhythmical  movement.  This  had  best  be 
spontaneous,  but  need  by  no  means  be  unconscious; 
one  may  lawfully  give,  even  in  extemporaneous 
speech,  a  certain  occasional  and  subordinate  atten- 
tion to  the  proportion  of  clauses,  the  harmonious 
flow  of  the  sentence.  It  is  obvious  that  the  cadence^ 
or  concluding  strain  of  a  sentence,  is  in  this  respect 
most  important.  Here,  as  was  seen  with  regard  to 
energy,  we  must  avoid  ending  with  a  number  of 
unemphatic  words  or  unaccented  syllables.  This 
requires  special  care  in  English.  We  have  not  only 
a  great  number  of  such  terminations  as  -osity,  -ility^ 
etc.,  but  many  words  like  occupancy,  profitableness, 
in  which,  according  to  the  Gothic  tendency,  the 
accent  remains  on  the  first  or  leading  syllable,  no 
matter  how  many  syllables  may  be  added,  and  which 
are  exceedingly  ill-suited  to  close  a  sentence.  More- 
over, it  does  not  sound  well  if  a  sentence  containing 
one  or  more  long  clauses  should  end  with  a  short 
one.  Many  points  of  this  sort  might  be  noted ;  but 
after  all,  rhythm  in  prose  scarcely  requires  particu- 
lar rules,  being  sufficiently  regulated  by  the  ear,  if 
once  a  man  has  learned  to  give  it  some  attention, 
in  his  own  speaking  and  writing,  and  in  the  books 
he  piost  carefully  reads.  It  is  highly  important  that 
the  rhythm  of  successive  sentences  should  frequently 
vary,  as  is  eminently  the  case  in  Burke.  Milton's 
prose  has  great  majesty  of  movement,  but  with  hardly 
sufficient  variety,  and  with  some  sacrifice  of  practical 
directness.  Robert  Hall's  style  is  in  this  as  in  most 
respects  very  admirable ;  yet  even  he  would  have  more 
1  Comp.  Whately,  pp.  353-355- 


414  ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE. 

power  with  a  miscellaneous  audience  if  now  and  then 
a  sentence  were  in  its  ending  more  abrupt  —  some 
quick,  sharp  saying  that  would  crack  like  a  whip. 
The  sermons  of  Addison  Alexander  have  in  some 
impassioned  passages  a  magnificent  rhythm.^ 

(3)  Most  of  l\iQ  figures  which  give  energy  to  style, 
will  also  impart  elegance.  Those  which  especially 
conduce  to  elegance  are  simile,  metaphor,  and  per- 
sonification. A  comparison,  or  simile,  which  has 
any  considerable  value  in  the  way  of  elucidation  or 
proof,  becomes  much  more  valuable  if  also  beautiful, 
because  then  it  gains  a  pleased  and  sympathizing 
attention.  That  which  does  not  contribute  to  per- 
spicuity or  force,  must  never  be  introduced  merely 
as  an  ornament,  for  this,  as  we  have  seen,  belongs 
to  poetry,  but  not  to  practical  and  serious  discourse. 
Every  one  is  familiar  with  the  use  of  comparisons 
and  metaphors  to  elevate  or  to  degrade.  No  better 
example  can  be  found  than  that  often  quoted  from 
Aristotle. 2  The  poet  Simonides  was  requested  by 
the  victor  in  a  mule-race  to  write  a  triumphal  ode; 
and  offended  at  the  small  present  offered,  said  he 
would  not  write  about  half -asses,  which  was  the  com- 
mon Greek  name  for  mules.  But  a  larger  present 
being  offered,  he  addressed  them  in  an  ode  as 
"daughters  of  storm-footed  steeds."  It  is  much  to 
know  which  side  of  a  subject  to  select.^ 

1  The  subject  of  melody  and  harmony  of  style  is  discussed  at 
length  by  Day,  pp.  218-246.  See  also  Hoppin,  pp.  727-730.  The 
ancients  were  much  more  attentive  to  this  matter  than  the  moderns. 
Besides  Aristotle  (Rhet.  III.  3),  Cicero  treats  of  rhythm  at  great 
length,  and  boasts  that  no  one  has  ever  before  discussed  it  so  thor- 
oughly (Orator,  cap.  50-71).  Quintilian  is  more  brief  (IX.  4,  45-120), 
and  cautions  against  overdoing  the  thing.  "  With  this  caution,  Cicero's 
observations  will  be  found  quite  instructive. 

2  Rhet.  III.  2. 

8  Compare  what  is  said  of  figures  above  in  chap.  iii.  (4) ;  also  on 
Illustration,  above,  Part  I.  chap.  viii. 


ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE.  4^5 

(4)  No  quality  of  style  is  more  frequently  urged 
as  an  object  of  pursuit  than  Simplicity.  Every  one 
feels  that  simplicity  is  a  great  excellence.  But 
when  we  attempt  to  analyze  simplicity,  and  show 
how  it  may  be  attained,  we  are  apt  to  find  unex- 
pected difficulty.  The  opposite  of  a  simple  style 
would  seem  to  be  one  that  is  involved,  or  that  is  too 
elaborate,  or  that  is  overloaded  with  ornament.  In 
the  first  case  we  might  say  that  a  simple  style  does 
not  roll  up  an  idea  in  manifold  clauses  and  sen- 
tences, which  we  must  painfully  unroll  in  order  to 
perceive  it,  but  spreads  out  the  idea  at  once  to  our 
view;  that  it  is  direct,  and  easy  to  understand. 
Then  usage  extends  the  term  to  denote  a  style  that 
is  not  excessively  labored,  or  in  any  respect  arti- 
ficial, that  does  not  appear  to  be  produced  with  great 
effort.  And  in  a  particular  variety  of  this  use  we 
mean  by  it  a  style  that  has  no  elaborate  ornamenta- 
tion. "  In  manner  simplicity  is  the  opposite,  not  of 
art,  but  of  artifice;  and  in  motive  it  is  the  opposite 
of  conceit,  vanity,  ambition. "  ^ 

A  simple  style,  then,  as  it  unfolds  the  thought  at 
once,  will  be  perspicuous,  though  there  may  be  a 
certain  kind  of  perspicuity  where,  strictly  speaking, 
there  is  not  simplicity.  You  may  make  an  idea 
plain  by  repeated  and  varied  statement  and  illustra- 
tion ;  a  simple  style  makes  it  plain  at  once.  In  this 
respect  simplicity  demands  both  of  the  conditions  of 
perspicuity  which  we  have  heretofore  noticed;  the 
language  must  be  such  as  the  hearers  will  easily 
understand,  and  it  must  exactly  express  the  idea. 
A  man  is  not  certainly  "simplifying"  a  thought 
when  he  is  hammering  it  by  prolonged  and  tedious 
explanation.  Archbishop  Usher  said,  "  We  need  all 
our  learning  to  make  things  plain."     The   speaker 

1  Dabney,  Sacred  Rhet.  p.  291,  —  a  good  discussion. 


4l6  ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE. 

must  find  the  least  complicated,  the  most  direct  and 
readily  intelligible  expression,  which  at  the  same  time 
exactly  hits  his  meaning.  Men  often  use  familiar 
words,  but  do  not  so  choose  and  connect  them  as  to 
make  their  style  simple.  The  famous  critic,  Lord 
Jeffrey,  is  credited  with  the  saying,  "  Simplicity  is 
the  last  attainment  of  progressive  literature."  ^ 

In  the  other  case  a  simple  style  means  a  style 
which  is  not  labored  or  artificial,  which  flows  freely, 
and  seems  to  be  natural.  If  it  is  at  the  same  time 
really  perspicuous,  this  easy,  inelaborate  style  is 
always  the  result  of  careful  self-discipline,  and  the 
expression  of  ideas  patiently  reflected  on  and  clearly 
conceived.  There  are  peculiarities  of  natural  ten- 
dency in  this  as  in  all  respects,  but  it  is  a  great  mis- 
take to  regard  true  simplicity  of  style  as  a  mere  gift 
of  nature.  One  must  habitually  think  his  thoughts 
into  clearness,  and  must  acquire  wide  and  easy  com- 
mand of  the  best  resources  of  language,  if  he  would 
be  able  to  speak  simply,  and  yet  really  say  some- 
thing. 

And  when  by  simplicity  we  mean  the  absence  of 
excessive  ornamentation,  let  us  beware  of  going  to 
the  opposite  extreme.  South  has  sharply  satirized 
his  great  contemporary  Jeremy  Taylor,  by  extracting 
from  his  writings  some  specimens  of  over-wrought, 
fanciful  ornament.  " '  I  speak  the  words  of  sober- 
ness,'  said  St.  Paul,  and  I  preach  the  Gospel  not 
with  the  *  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom.'  This 
was  the  way  of  the  Apostle's  discoursing  of  things 
sacred.  Nothing  here  of  *  the  fringes  of  the  north 
star;'  nothing  of  'nature's  becoming  unnatural;' 
nothing  of  *  the  down  of  angels'  wings,  or  the  beau- 
tiful locks  of  cherubims;'  no  starched  similitudes 
introduced  with  a  *  Thus  have  I  seen  a  cloud  rolling 

1  Quoted  in  Parker's  Ad  Clerum,  p.  36. 


ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE.  417 

in  its  airy  mansion,'  and  the  like.  No, — these 
were  sublimities  above  the  rise  of  the  Apostolic 
spirit.  For  the  Apostles,  poor  mortals,  were  con- 
tent to  take  lower  steps,  and  to  tell  the  world  in 
plain  terms  that  he  who  believed  should  be  saved, 
and  that  he  who  believed  not  should  be  damned. 
And  this  was  the  dialect  which  pierced  the  con- 
science, and  made  the  hearers  cry  out,  Men  and 
brethren,  what  shall  we  do.?  ...  In  a  word,  the 
Apostles'  preaching  was  therefore  mighty  and  suc- 
cessful, because  plain,  natural,  and  familiar,  and  by 
no  means  above  the  capacity  of  their  hearers;  noth- 
ing being  more  preposterous  than  for  those  who 
were  professedly  aiming  at  men's  hearts,  to  miss 
the  mark  by  shooting  over  their  heads.  "^  The 
expressions  quoted  by  South  are,  at  least  as  they 
here  stand,  supremely  ridiculous  for  a  sermon;  and 
unfortunately  they  are  sometimes  paralleled  in  our 
own  day.  But  simplicity  by  no  means  excludes 
all  ornament  in  all  cases.  Many  a  thought,  no 
doubt,  is  "when  unadorned,  adorned  the  most," 
because,  like  a  statue  without  drapery,  its  own  form 
is  beautiful.  But,  as  we  have  heretofore  observed, 
there  are  thoughts  which  naturally  so  stimulate  the 
imagination  that  of  its  own  accord  it  clothes  them 
in  a  garb  of  beauty.  And  there  is  many  a  truth 
which  must  have  some  touches  of  fancy,  or  it  is  not 
fairly  presented.  The  maiden  on  a  summer  even- 
ing, arrayed  in  simplest  white,  yet  knows  how,  by 
the  bit  of  ribbon  skilfully  placed,  or  the  rose-bud  in 
her  hair,  to  give  the  whole  a  modest  charm.  Shall 
the  simple  garb  of  truth  be  denied  a  like  advantage.? 
Wherever  simplicity  is  to  have  its  full  attractive- 
ness, and  to  exert  its  true  power,  it  must  not  be  bald 
simplicity ;  there  is  sure  to  be  now  and  then  some 

1  Quoted  by  Henry  Rogers,  p.  219. 
27 


4l8  ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE. 

little  quaintness  of  phrase  or  delicate  tinge  of  fancy, 
some  slight  felicity  of  expression,  which  lifts  it 
above  the  vulgar  or  the  commonplace.  In  using 
colloquial  phrases,  those  homely  English  idioms 
which  have  such  power,  it  is  curious  to  observe  how 
Bunyan,  or  Spurgeon,  will  divest  them  of  vulgarity 
and  give  them  an  air  almost  of  refinement,  by  this 
light  play  of  fancy. 

Two  things  ought  here  to  be  borne  in  mind : 
(a)  The  worst  of  all  affectations  in  style  is  the  affec- 
tation of  simplicity.  It  is  like  affected  modesty  in 
an  immodest  woman.  And  (d)  a  style  may  have  real 
beauty  and  real  power  that  is  not  simple.  The  pro- 
cessional pomp  of  Milton's  grand  sentences,  the 
revolving  splendors  of  Chalmers,  the  lightnings  and 
auroras  of  Chrysostom  and  Jeremy  Taylor,  may  re- 
mind us  that  simplicity  is  not  everything.  These 
men,  however,  are  often  simple;  they  have  too  much 
good  taste  and  natural  feeling  to  employ  inflated 
diction  when  speaking  of  common  things.  And  so 
those  who  seek  to  be  habitually  simple  must  let  their 
style  vary  according  to  subject  and  feeling.  While 
usually  confining  themselves  to  those  medium  tones 
which  suit  the  common  thought  and  experience  of 
mankind,  let  them  be  willing,  and  be  able,  to  range 
the  whole  gamut  of  expression,  to  rise  and  fall  as 
occasion  demands  or  passion  prompts.^ 

"The  constant  employment  of  one  species  of 
phraseology,  which  all  have  now  to  strive  against, 
implies  an  undeveloped  faculty  of  language.  To 
have  a  specific  style  is  to  be  poor  in  speech.  .  .  . 
As  in  a  fine  nature,  the  play  of  the  features,  the 

1  Choice  examples  of  a  simple  style,  which  is  at  the  same  time 
forcible  and  elegant,  may  be  found  in  Bunyan,  Spurgeon,  and 
Maclaren,  and  in  the  writings  of  Washington  Irving  and  Charles 
Lamb. 


ELEGANCE   OF   STYLE.  419 

tones  of  the  voice  and  its  cadences,  vary  in  harmony 
with  every  thought  uttered ;  so,  in  one  possessed  of 
a  fully-developed  power  of  speech,  the  mould  in 
which  each  combination  of  words  is  cast  will  simply 
vary  with,  and  be  appropriate  to  the  sentiment.  .  .  . 
The  perfect  writer  will  express  himself  as  Junius, 
when  in  the  Junius  frame  of  mind;  when  he  feels 
as  Lamb  felt,  will  use  a  like  familiar  speech;  and 
will  fall  into  the  ruggedness  of  Carlyle  when  in  a 
Carlylean  mood.  Now  he  will  be  rhythmical  and 
now  irregular;  here  his  language  will  be  plain  and 
there  ornate;  sometimes  his  sentences  will  be  bal- 
anced and  at  other  times  unsymmetrical ;  for  a  while 
there  will  be  considerable  sameness,  and  then  again 
great  variety."  ^ 

From  all  this  it  will  appear  that  true  simplicity 
of  style,  which  is  at  once  intelligible,  which  has 
an  easy  movement,  a  natural  beauty  and  a  natural 
variety,  requires  patient  thought,  disciplined  imag- 
ination, and  thorough  mastery  of  language.  ^ 

^  Spencer,  Essay  on  Style,  p.  46. 

2  In  the  way  of  caution  against  mistakes  as  to  simplicity,  see 
a  good  discussion  in  Moore's  Thoughts  on  Preaching  (London, 
1869),  chap.  vi. 


420  IMAGINATION   IN   PREACHING. 


CHAPTER  V. 

IMAGINATION  IN  PREACHING. 

IMAGINATION,  as  we  have  already  seen,  is  among 
the  leading  characteristics  of  eloquence.  ^  It 
plays  a  highly  important  part  in  the  construction  of 
discourse  and  in  style,  and  it  has  much  to  do  even 
with  the  invention  of  materials.  Though  repeatedly 
referred  to,  under  these  several  heads,  it  is  thought 
to  require  at  this  point  some  more  particular  discus- 
sion, as  to  its  office  in  oratory,  and  the  means  of  its 
cultivation. 

§   I.    USES   OF  IMAGINATION  TO  THE  ORATOR. 

The  popular  conception  of  imagination  still  is, 
that  it  assists  the  orator  only  in  the  way  of  producing 
high-wrought  imagery,  in  letting  off  such  fire-works 
of  fancy  as  sophomores  affect,  and  half-educated 
people  admire.  But  modern  psychology  tends  more 
and  more  to  assign  imagination  a  high  position  and 
a  wide  and  varied  domain. ^  It  is  coming  to  be 
recognized  as  giving  indispensable  aid  in  scientific 
research  and  philosophical  abstraction,  in  the  forma- 
tion of  geometrical  and  ethical,  as  well  as  of  artistic 
ideals,  in  the  varied  tasks  of  practical  invention,  and 
even  in  the  comprehension  and  conduct  of  practical 
life.     When  entering  some  strange  country,  or  when 

1  Comp.  Introduction,  §  2. 

2  See  Tyndall's  address  on  the  Use  of  the  Imagination  in  Physical 
Science;  Whewell's  History  of  the  Inductive  Sciences;  E.  C.  Sted- 
man's  Nature  of  Poetry,  Lect.  VII. 


IMAGINATION    IN   PREACHING.  421 

brought  by  great  social  convulsions  into  a  new  state 
of  things,  most  men  are  unable,  through  deficiency 
of  imagination,  fully  to  realize  the  new  situation, 
and  promptly  to  seize  upon  the  central  and  control- 
ling forces.  Accordingly  Napoleon  said,  "The  men 
of  imagination  rule  the  world." 

This  noble  faculty  is  possessed  in  a  high  degree 
by  every  true  orator.  Without  it,  a  man  may  be 
instructive  and  convincing,  may  influence  others  by 
his  practical  energy,  his  resolution  and  determina- 
tion, but  he  can  never  exert  the  peculiar  power  of 
eloquence.  A  preacher  without  imagination  may 
be  respected  for  his  sound  sense,  may  be  loved  for 
his  homely  goodness,  but  he  will  not  move  a  congre- 
gation, he  will  not  be  a  power  in  the  community. 
If  on  the  other  hand  he  have  a  perverted  or  an  undis- 
ciplined imagination,  it  may  ruin  his  usefulness.  It 
is  a  matter  on  which  preachers  seldom  bestow  any 
thoughtful  attention;  and  yet  few  things  are  so  im- 
portant to  their  real  success,  as  the  possession,  the 
culture,  the  control,  of  imagination. 

The  terms  imagination  and  fancy  were  once  prac- 
tically equivalent.  The  latter,  as  shown  by  the  old 
spelling  phantsy,  is  a  corruption  of  the  Greek  term 
phantasia,  which  was  afterwards  reintroduced  in  its 
longer  form  phantasy,  and  assigned  by  usage  to 
special  senses.  ^  Addison  said  that  he  used  the 
words  imagination  and  fancy  indiscriminately.  2 
Some  writers,  particularly  Ruskin,  are  disposed  to 
claim  that  there  are  two  distinct  faculties  of  the 
mind,  which  they  would  denote  by  these  two  terms. 
The  more  common,  and  apparently  the  more  correct 
opinion  is,  that  what  we  call  imagination  and  fancy 
are  but  different  forms  and  modes  of  exercise  of  the 

1  Compare  palsy  and  paralysis,  and  several  other  cases. 

2  Fleming,  Vocab.  of  Phil.  p.  194. 


422  IMAGINATION   IN   PREACHING. 

same  faculty.  We  call  it  fancy  when  playing  on  the 
mere  surface  of  things,  imagination  when  penetrat- 
ing to  the  heart,  the  essence;  fancy  when  sportive 
or  cold,  imagination  when  passionate,  or  at  least 
serious.  Imagination  "cannot  but  be  serious;  she 
sees  too  far,  too  darkly,  too  solemnly,  too  earnestly, 
ever  to  smile.  There  is  something  in  the  heart  of 
everything,  if  we  can  reach  it,  that  we  shall  not  be 
inclined  to  laugh  at.  The  '  innumerable  laughter ' 
of  the  sea  is  on  its  surface,  not  in  the  deep."  ^ 

(i)  Imagination  is  employed  by  the  orator  in  the 
construction  of  discourse.  To  give  familiar  mate- 
rials any  fresh  interest,  they  must  be  brought  into 
new  combinations ;  and  to  form  a  discourse  at  all,  the 
materials  must  be  made  into  a  complete  and  sym- 
metrical structure.  Piles  of  bricks  and  lumber  and 
sand  are  as  much  a  house,  as  the  mere  piling  up  of 
thoughts  will  constitute  a  discourse.  The  builder, 
of  palace  or  of  cabin,  works  by  constructive  imag- 
ination; and  it  is  the  same  faculty  that  builds  a 
speech.  In  fact  imagination,  the  wonder-worker, 
does  much  more  than  this.     It  is  only  a  lower  imag- 


1  Ruskin,  Modern  Painters,  Vol.  II.  p.  i66.  On  Imagination  in 
general,  see  especially  Hamilton's  Metaphysics,  and,  still  better  as  to 
this  subject,  Porter  on  the  Human  Intellect.  Ruskin,  as  just  quoted, 
has  an  extended  discussion,  of  great  value  to  public  speakers.  See 
also  Wordsworth's  preface  to  his  Poems.  A  good  lecture  by  McCosh, 
on  the  Imagination,  its  Use  and  Abuse,  has  been  republished  as  a 
tract  by  the  Amer.  Tr.  Soc.  The  practical  uses  of  imagination  are 
pleasantly  discussed  in  the  Contemporary  Review,  September,  1869 
Not  very  much  has  been  written  on  the  relations  of  imagination  to 
eloquence.  There  is  an  address  by  Haven  on  "  the  Province  of  Im- 
agination in  Sacred  Oratory,"  in  Bibl.  Sacra,  January,  1867,  or  in  his 
Studies  in  Philosophy  and  Theology,  1869.  Beecher  discusses  it 
in  his  Yale  Lectures,  First  Series,  p.  109  £f.  There  is  also  a  very 
interesting  discussion  by  N.  J.  Burton,  Yale  Lect.  p.  82  ff. ;  and  one 
by  E.  P.  Hood,  Vocation  of  the  Preacher,  p.  162  £f.  With  these 
comp.  Quintilian,  VI.  c.  ii.  29.  The  subject  would  reward  thorough 
study,  and  admits  of  much  interesting  and  suggestive  illustration. 


IMAGINATION    IN    PREACHING.  423 

ination  that  takes  fragments  of  material,  and  builds 
them,  each  fragment  preserving  its  individuality,  into 
a  new  structure;  high,  intense  imagination  fuses  the 
materials,  reduces  them  to  their  natural  elements, 
and  forms  of  them  a  structure  possessing  complete 
unity.  The  one  process  is  a  new  composition  of 
fragments;  the  other  a  new  organization  of  elements. 
The  one  cements  the  materials  together,  or  at  best 
welds  them  together;  the  other  makes  them  grow 
together,  by  furnishing  a  principle  of  vitality  which 
takes  up  the  analyzed  material  and  organizes  it  ac- 
cording to  new  laws.  Imagination  does  not  create 
thought ;  but  it  organizes  thought  into  forms  as  new 
as  the  equestrian  statue  of  bronze  is  unlike  the 
metallic  ores  when  they  lay  in  the  mine.  This 
constructing,  fashioning,  organizing  function  of  the 
imagination  is  exercised  in  forming  a  poem,  or  a 
story,  but  still  more  in  forming  a  discourse,  where 
there  is  far  greater  need  of  unity,  symmetry,  and 
adaptation  to  a  specific  design. 

And  not  only  is  it  needed  in  constructing  dis- 
courses, but  every  paragraph,  yea  ever}'  sentence,  is 
properly  a  work  of  imagination,  a  work  of  art.  Tho 
painter,  sculptor,  architect,  does  not  fashion  merely 
the  general  outline  of  his  work,  and  leave  the  details 
to  chance.  The  whole  is  but  the  parts  taken  to- 
gether. Each  part  must  have  a  certain  complete- 
ness in  itself,  and  yet  must  be  in  itself  incomplete, 
being  but  a  fragment  of  one  whole.  So  must  it  be 
in  the  construction  of  discourse. 

(2)  If,  as  Porter  says,  "to  invent  or  discover,  is 
always  to  recombine,  to  adjust  in  new  positions 
objects  or  parts  of  objects  which  have  never  been 
so  connected  before,"^  then  imagination  has  no  little 
to  do  with  the  invention  of  thought.     What  are  its 

1  On  the  Human  Intellect,  §  364. 


424  IMAGINATION   IN   PREACHING. 

precise  functions  in  this  respect,  students  of  psy- 
chology have  not  yet  settled.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  does  somehow  aid  us  in  penetrating 
to  the  heart  of  a  subject,  and  developing  it  from 
within ;  that  it  thus  assists  the  work  of  original  anal- 
ysis, as  well  as  that  of  exposition;  though  Ruskin's 
theory  of ''the  penetrative  imagination"  is,  as  he 
virtually  confesses,  uncertain  and  obscure.^ 

(3)  The  orator  uses  imagination  in  the  production 
of  images.  Often  the  idea  he  wishes  to  present  can 
itself  be  converted  into  an  image.  Imagination  thus 
gives  the  masses  of  thought  a  definite  shape,  a  clear- 
cut  outline,  and  sometimes  makes  them  stand  out  as 
in  a  stereoscopic  picture.  This  excites  the  imagina- 
tion of  another,  and  thus  affects  his  feelings.  Ob- 
jects of  sense  affect  the  feelings  most  powerfully, 
and  images  more  closely  resemble  objects  of  sense 
than  do  mere  ideas.  Thus  if,  instead  of  dwelling 
upon  the  idea  of  benevolence,  we  bring  forward  the 
image  of  a  benevolent  man  or  a  benevolent  action, 
it  is  much  more  affecting. ^ 

And  whether  the  particular  idea  can  or  cannot  be 
converted  into  an  image,  we  may  associate  with  it, 
may  group  around  it,  by  resemblance  or  analogy,  or 
by  contrast,  some  other  idea  or  ideas  which  can  be 
formed  into  images,  and  which  will  reflect  their  light 
and  splendor  upon  the  thought  in  hand.  This  is 
Illustration,  with  all  its  power  not  only  to  gratify 
the  taste,  but  to  assist  comprehension,  to  carry 
conviction,  and  to  awaken  emotion. 

It  is  thus  mainly  through  imagination  that  we 
touch  the  feelings,  and  thereby  bring  truth  power- 
fully to  bear  upon  the  will,  which  is  the  end  and  the 
very  essence  of  eloquence.     And  on  the  other  hand 

1  Modern  Painters,  Vol.  II.  p.  160  ff. 

2  Comp.  Part  I.  chap.  ix.  on  Application. 


IMAGINATION    IN   PREACHING.  425 

passion  kindles  imagination.  Love,  for  instance, 
will  cause  the  dullest  mind  to  give  forth  some  sparks 
of  imagination.  Anger,  overwhelming  grief,  pas- 
sionate supplication,  will  often  struggle  to  express 
itself  by  means  of  the  boldest  images.  Thus  imag- 
ination and  passion  continually  act  and  react,  caus- 
ing the  one  to  glow  more  brightly  and  the  other  to 
grow  fiercer  in  its  blaze. 

(4)  Another  use  of  imagination,  though  not  wholly 
distinct  from  the  last,  is  in  realizing  and  depict- 
ing what  the  Scriptures  reveal.  We  have  already 
noticed  how  much  of  the  Bible  consists  of  narrative, 
and  how  important  it  is  that  the  preacher  should 
be  able  vividly  to  describe  its  scenes  and  events.^ 
"Historical  imagination,"  in  reproducing  the  past, 
is  one  of  the  favorite  ideas  of  our  day.  In  the  exer- 
cise of  it  great  care  must  be  taken  that  it  shall  be 
directed  and  controlled  by  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  times  reproduced,  and  true  sympathy  with  their 
spirit,  or  we  shall  carry  back  our  own  experiences 
and  our  modern  conceptions,  and  make,  as  historical 
description  often  has  done,  an  utterly  erroneous 
representation.  But  with  this  caution,  historical 
imagination  may  be  declared  indispensable,  not  only 
to  description  of  Scripture  history,  but  to  the  just 
comprehension  of  the  whole  system  of  doctrine  and 
duty,  for  all  rests  upon  a  basis  of  fact.  Controver- 
sialists, for  example,  often  greatly  err,  from  failing 
to  realize  the  circumstances  of  the  primitive  age, 
and  thus  misconceiving  the  precise  aim  of  many  a 
lesson  or  observance;  and  likewise  from  failing  to 
understand  the  real  views  and  sentiments  of  those 
whom  they  oppose. 

And  not  only  as  to  the  past  is  imagination  needed; 
it  is  requisite  if  we  are  justly  to  conceive  and  vividly 

1  See  Part  I.  chap.  vi.  §  2. 


426  IMAGINATION   IN   PREACHING. 

to  realize  the  Scripture  revelations  concerning  the 
unseen  world  and  the  eternal  future.  Faith  believes 
these  revelations,  and  imagination,  aroused  by  faith 
and  called  into  its  service,  makes  the  things  unseen 
and  eternal  a  definite  reality  to  the  mind,  so  that 
they  affect  the  feelings  almost  like  objects  of  sense, 
and  become  a  power  in  our  earthly  life.  It  may  also 
to  some  extent  fill  out  the  Bible  pictures  of  the 
unseen  world,  by  following  the  analogies  of  this 
world;  but  there  is  here  demanded  a  moderation 
and  reserve,  a  care  in  distinguishing  between  the 
revealed  and  the  supposed,  which  in  some  books 
and  many  sermons  are  sadly  wanting. 

§  2.    MEANS  OF  CULTIVATING  THE  IMAGINATION. 

If  this  faculty  has  so  much  to  do  with  the  con- 
struction and  style,  and  even  with  inventing  the 
materials  of  discourse,  it  becomes  a  matter  of  very 
high  importance  that  preachers  should  employ  the 
best  means  of  giving  it  thorough  cultivation,  and 
bringing  it  under  complete  control. 

(i)  Imagination  is  awakened  and  invigorated  by 
communion  with  nature.  A  certain  indefinable  sym- 
pathy exists,  by  a  law  of  our  being,  between  external 
nature  and  ourselves.  Its  forms  and  hues  have  a 
meaning  for  us  more  subtle  than  language  conveys, 
and  excite  in  us  strange  longings  and  kindlings 
of  soul,  till  we  idealize  all  we  behold.  And  our 
thoughtful  observation  of  nature  may  be  quickened 
and  exalted  by  science.  The  systematic  study  of 
minerals,  vegetables,  animals,  reveals  to  us  new  and 
wonderful  things,  teaches  us  to  read,  where  we  had 
not  seen  it  before,  the  handwriting  of  our  God. 
Geology  acquaints  us  with  earth's  mighty  past. 
Astronomy  introduces  us  to  the  ever  widening  and 


IMAGINATION   IN    PREACHING.  427 

brightening  glories  of  the  wonder-crowded  uni- 
verse, till  the  "music  of  the  spheres"  attains  for 
us  a  sublime,  orchestral  grandeur,  an  unearthly 
sweetness,  a  wealth  of  precious  meaning,  which 
the  wise  Greek  never  knew.  We  need  not  now 
to  people  all  natural  objects  with  unseen,  half- 
human  creatures,  nor  need  we  lose  ourselves  in 
the  vagueness  of  pantheism;  our  personality  may 
everywhere  indulge  its  longing  for  communion  with 
a  person,  we  may  find  in  all  nature  the  personal 
God.  —  But  words  are  here  vain.  If  we  wish  for 
power  of  imagination,  let  us  observe,  contemplate, 
commune  with  nature. 

(2)  Art  and  Literature  may  greatly  aid  us.  Nature 
is  by  most  of  us  very  imperfectly  understood  and 
appreciated  till  interpreted  to  us  by  the  poet  or  the 
artist.  Perhaps  we  grew  up  amid  glorious  moun- 
tains, or  beside  the  many-sounding  sea,  and  yet  little 
knew  their  meaning,  little  felt  their  inspiration,  till 
some  high-priest  of  nature  had  taught  us,  by  the  pen 
or  the  pencil,  how  to  behold  and  comprehend  and 
sympathize. 

Sculpture,  painting,  architecture,  music,  have  a 
strange  power  to  develop  the  imagination  in  general, 
and  sometimes  to  stimulate  it  for  particular  efforts, 
and  they  can  be  devoid  of  interest  to  none  who  pos- 
sess this  faculty  in  even  a  moderate  degree.  When 
Andrew  Fuller  stopped  suddenly  amid  the  architec- 
tural glories  of  Cambridge,  and  proposed  to  his  guide 
to  go  home  and  discuss  with  him  the  doctrine  of  jus- 
tification, he  betrayed  that  deficiency  of  imagination 
which  is  conspicuous  in  the  structure  and  the  style 
of  his  otherwise  admirable  sermons.  There  is  many 
a  preacher  who  could  tell  how  some  picture,  perhaps 
casually  looked  at,  has  helped  him  in  making  a  ser- 
mon ;  there  is  many  a  one  utterly  unable  to  tell  how 


428  IMAGINATION   IN   PREACHING. 

much  the  general  study  of  works  of  art  has  con- 
tributed to  develop  his  imagination.^ 

In  our  country  few  have  any  considerable  oppor- 
tunity for  beholding  the  most  inspiring  works  of 
art. 2  But  the  poets  are  accessible  to  all,  and  they 
are  here  our  chief  teachers.  They  see  the  analogies 
of  external  nature  to  moral  and  religious  truth  as 
most  of  us  cannot ;  and  they  open  up  to  us  unknown 
depths  in  our  own  nature.  From  them  we  may  learn 
how  to  observe  and  compare,  how  to  depict  and 
interpret ;  though  we  must  not  forget  that  they  aim 
mainly  to  please,  while  we  must  subordinate  every- 
thing to  spiritual  profit,  and  that  such  difference  of 
aim  should  lead  to  great  difference  of  method.  And 
it  is  not  of  necessity  those  poets  who  seem  to  the 
general  reader  to  show  most  imagination,  but  those 
who  most  kindle  our  imagination,  that  will  in  this 
respect  be  most  useful.  Thus  the  poems  of  Words- 
worth and  the  Brownings  are  much  more  profitable 
than  those  of  Moore  and  Scott.  We  must  seek  by 
effort  of  our  own  imagination  to  conceive  the  poet's 
image,  if  we  are  to  have  not  mere  entertainment  but 
improvement;  and  he  is  for  us  the  best  poet  who 
awakens  our  imagination,  gives  it  general  direction, 
stimulates  it  by  some  of  the  most  suggestive  details, 
and  leaves  it  to  do  all  the  rest  for  itself.  That  is  to 
say,  in  order  to  the  benefit  here  proposed,  we  must 
study  poetry. 

There  is  much  highly  imaginative  prose  which  has 
a  similar  value.  Novel-reading,  while  well  known 
to  injure  many,  would  if  properly  managed  be  to 
some  preachers  exceedingly  profitable,  in  respect  to 

1  See  some  good  thoughts  in  McCosh's  Lecture,  p.  39  ff. 

2  Many  suggestive  ideas  of  art  may  be  derived  from  Ruskin's 
various  works,  and  much  useful  information  on  the  subject  from 
Samson's  "Elements  of  Art-Criticism"  (Philadelphia,  Lippincott). 


IMAGINATION    IN   PREACHING.  429 

imagination  and  literary  taste.  As  a  rule,  one 
should  read  only  the  very  best  works  of  the  very 
best  novelists ;  and  he  should  never  read  two  novels 
in  succession,  but  always  put  between  them  several 
works  of  a  very  different  kind.  And  there  is  often 
more  to  be  learned irova  a  novel,  if  at  an  early  period 
we  turn  over  and  find  out  how  the  story  will  end, 
or  if  we  deliberately  examine  one  previously  read. 
Goethe,  Edgar  Poe,  and  many  others,  have  given 
us  imaginative  writings  not  properly  called  tales, 
which  may  in  like  manner  be  profitable.  Some  of 
the  historians  powerfully  appeal  to  and  exercise  the 
imagination  of  their  readers;  for  example,  Macaulay 
and  Motley.  And  the  great  orators  and  preachers 
present  to  us  imagination  operating  in  precisely 
those  methods  with  which  we  are  most  concerned. 
If  one  wishes  to  stimulate  in  himself  the  desire  for 
affluence  of  imaginative  thought  and  diction,  let 
him  read  Plato,  Cicero,  Chrysostom,  Jeremy  Taylor, 
Milton,  Burke,  Chalmers;  if  he  wishes  to  chasten 
himself  into  a  more  sober  and  regulated  use  of 
imagination,  so  that  it  shall  be  duly  subordinated  to 
other  faculties,  let  him  read  Demosthenes,  Tacitus, 
Daniel  Webster,  Robert  Hall.  In  general  it  must 
be  remembered  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  appetite  is 
not  always  a  sure  guide. 

(3)  After  all,  the  great  means  of  cultivating  imag- 
ination, as  is  the  case  with  all  our  faculties,  is  actual 
exercise.  The  excessive  display  of  second-rate  imag- 
ination which  some  men  make  so  offensive,  drives 
other  men  to  the  opposite  extreme,  so  that  they 
shrink  from  illustration  and  imagery  where  they  are 
really  needful,  and  never  stop  to  consider  how  num- 
erous and  varied  and  surpassingly  important  are 
the  functions  of  this  much-abused  faculty.  Let  a 
man  freely  exercise  imagination,  in  constructing  and 


430  IMAGINATION    IN    PREACHING. 

inventing,  in  picturing  and  illustrating,  in  reproduc- 
ing the  past  and  giving  vivid  reality  to  the  unseen 
world;  but  let  him  everywhere  exercise  it  under 
the  control  of  sound  judgment  and  good  taste,  and 
above  all  of  devout  feeling  and  a  solemn  sense  of 
responsibility  to  God. 

There  is  also  another,  an  ethical,  sense  in  which 
we  must  learn  to  control  the  imagination.  "  Religion 
is  the  art  of  disciplining  the  imagination."^  The 
imaginative  reproduction  of  scenes  witnessed,  read, 
or  heard  of;  and  the  imaginative  construction  of 
new  scenes,  may  be  helpful  or  harmful  to  the  moral 
nature  according  as  these  scenes  are  good  or  bad, 
elevating  or  degrading.  It  is  impossible  to  esti- 
mate what  a  profound  influence  a  man's  imagination 
has  upon  his  moral  and  spiritual  life;  and  thus 
through  these  channels,  as  well  as  more  directly,  it 
has  for  the  preacher  a  momentous  importance  in  his 
preaching. 

1  Abraham  Tucker,  quoted  by  Hervey,  p.  68. 


t^tt  IV. 


DELIVERY   OF  SERMONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  THREE  METHODS  OF  PREPARATION  AND 
DELIVERY.^ 


1.  Description    and   History 

OF  THE  Three  Methods. 

2.  Reading. 

3.  Recitation. 


§  4.  Free  Speaking. 
5.  General  and  Special  Pre- 
paration for  Extemporiz- 
ing. 


READING,  reciting,  extemporaneous  speaking  — 
which  is  the  best  method  of  preaching?  Though 
so  often  discussed,  this  question  constantly  recurs, 
not  merely  for  the  young  preachers  whom  every  year 
brings  forward,  but  for  many  of  maturer  age,  who  are 
not  satisfied  that  they  have  been  pursuing  the  wisest 
course.  It  is  a  question  affecting  not  only  one's  man- 
ner of  delivery,  but  his  whole  method  of  preparation, 
and  in  fact  all  his  habits  of  thought  and  expression. 
While  not  so  indispensable  a  condition  of  usefulness 
as  that  a  man  shall  hold  the  truth,  or  that  he  shall 
love  his  work,  or  that  he  shall  be  a  born  speaker,  it  is 

^  Among  the  numerous  discussions  of  this  subject,  attention  is 
directed  to  those  of  Ware  (in  Ripley),  Fenelon,  Palmer,  Coquerel, 
Kidder,  Skinner,  Hoppin,  Hervey,  Pittenger,  Hood,  and  Storrs. 
See  the  Bibliography  at  the  end  of  the  book,  on  the  Literature  of 
Homiletics. 


432  THE  THREE   METHODS   OF 

surely  a  matter  of  very  great  importance  to  one  whose 
best  energies  through  life  are  devoted  to  preaching, 
that  he  should  study  and  speak  in  the  most  effective 
way. 

§   I.      DESCRIPTION  AND   HISTORY  OF  THE  THREE 
METHODS. 

Now  because  the  method  of  preparation  is  neces- 
sarily involved  in  that  of  delivery,  it  is  well  to  discuss 
them  together.  For  clearness  we  may  here  describe 
more  particularly  the  three  different  ways  of  pre- 
paring and  delivering  sermons. 

(i)  Reading  to  a  congregation  a  sermon  which  has 
been  more  or  less  carefully  written  out  beforehand  is 
one  method,  which  has  been  and  is  still  often  prac- 
tised, though  it  is  scarcely  so  common  in  this  country 
as  it  was  a  generation  or  so  ago.  (2)  Reciting,  or 
repeating  from  memory,  a  sermon  which  has  been 
fully  written  and  committed,  has  also  been  the  man- 
ner of  a  good  many,  and  some  very  eminent,  preach- 
ers. This  is  probably,  and  very  properly,  the  least 
common  method  of  all.  (3)  Free,  or  extemporaneous, 
speaking,  without  dependence  upon  manuscript  or 
close  verbal  memory,  is  the  third  method.  But  here 
it  is  necessary  to  make  some  distinctions  as  to  the 
various  kinds  of  preparation  for  this  mode  of  delivery. 
(a)  Like  the  other  two,  this  method  may  follow  the 
most  careful  written  preparation,  though  the  manu- 
script be  neither  read  nor  memorized  and  recited. 
(d)  There  may  be  partial  written  preparation,  more 
or  less  full  and  careful  according  to  circumstances, 
and  ranging  all  the  way  from  a  pretty  full  sketch 
down  to  a  mere  outline  of  the  main  heads  of  dis- 
course, (c)  In  some  cases  there  may  be  no  written 
preparation  at  all,  but  the  sermon  may  be  thought 
out  completely,  or  only  in  its  leading  outlines,    (d)  And 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  433 

finally,  it  may  sometimes  be  necessary  or  desirable 
for  a  preacher  to  make  the  sermon  while  he  preaches 
it,  without  any  immediate  preparation.  In  such  a 
case  it  is  evident  that  the  preacher  must  fall  back 
upon  his  general  stock  of  material,  or,  what  is  more 
common  and  feasible,  upon  some  sermon  that  by  fre- 
quent use  has  become  familiar  to  his  mind. 

From  all  this  it  appears  that  free  speaking  is  a 
much  more  complicated  method  than  the  other  two, 
because  of  the  different  kinds  and  degrees  of  prepa- 
ration upon  which  it  depends.  The  advantages  and 
difficulties  of  each  method  will  presently  be  more 
fully  discussed;  but  because  these  three  ways  of 
preaching  have  all  been  in  vogue  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent  in  perhaps  all  ages,  it  may  be  interesting,  be- 
fore considering  their  respective  merits,  to  give  some 
account  of  their  history. 

No  doubt  men  spoke  in  public  before  writing  was 
invented,  as  often  now  among  savage  tribes;  and 
from  the  beginning,  some  of  these  speeches  must 
have  been  thought  out  beforehand,  and  even  their 
language  to  some  extent  fixed.  When  writing  be- 
came common,  it  was  natural  that  sometimes  the 
preparation  should  be  made  in  writing.  We  find 
the  great  Greek  and  Roman  orators  either  extem- 
porizing or  reciting;  and  much  in  their  practice  that 
is  commonly  spoken  of  as  recitation,  appears  to  have 
been  really  free  speech  from  written  preparation.^ 
Pliny  says  that  both  the  Roman  and  the  Greek  ora- 
tors sometimes  read  from  manuscript;  but  it  was 
evidently  unusual.  Cicero  is  said  to  have  read  in 
the  Senate  his  oration  delivered  after  his  return  from 
exile.  Lord  Brougham,  who  was  a  most  devoted 
and  appreciative  student  of  Demosthenes,  has  unhes- 
itatingly asserted  that  "  no  Athenian  audience  could 

1  §ee  a  fuller  account  in  Hervey's  Christian  Rhetoric,  pp.  S43-s6a 
28 


434  THE    THREE   METHODS   OF 

have  followed  Demosthenes  in  the  condensed  form 
in  which  his  speeches  are  printed."  Burke  and 
Fenelon  express  themselves  to  the  same  effect. 
Thus  if  reading  speeches  was  practised  among  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  or  reading  sermons  among  the 
early  Christians,  it  was  a  rare  and  exceptional  thing. 
Hervey  mentions  a  few  examples  of  reading  sermons 
among  the  ancient  preachers.  "The  sermons,"  says 
Neander,  speaking  of  the  age  of  Chrysostom  and 
Augustine,  "were  sometimes,  though  rarely,  read 
off  entirely  from  notes,  or  committed  to  memory; 
sometimes  they  were  freely  delivered,  after  a  plan 
prepared  beforehand;  and  sometimes  they  were  alto- 
gether extemporary.  The  last  we  learn  incidentally, 
from  being  informed  that  Augustine  was  occasionally 
directed  to  the  choice  of  a  subject  by  the  passage 
which  the  *  praelector '  had  selected  for  reading; 
when  he  tells  us,  he  was  sometimes  urged  by  some 
impression  of  the  moment,  to  give  his  sermon  a 
different  turn  from  what  he  had  originally  proposed. 
We  are  also  informed  by  Chrysostom,  that  his  sub- 
ject was  frequently  suggested  to  him  by  something  he 
met  with  on  his  way  to  church,  or  which  suddenly 
occurred  during  divine  service."^ 

As  to  the  custom  in  the  Middle  Ages,  Neale  says: 
"The  mediaeval  practice  was  no  doubt  the  same  with 
that  of  the  Continental  churches  of  the  present  day, 
that  the  preacher  should  repeat  from  memory  that 
which  he  had  previously  composed.  "^ 

1  Church  Hist.  II.  317.  He  cites  no  authority  for  the  statement 
that  sermons  were  sometimes  read,  nor  does  Bingham.  Paniel,  in  his 
copious  History  of  Preaching  (in  German),  makes  no  such  statement. 
It  is  perhaps  only  an  inference  from  the  fact  that  it  was  common 
to  preach  other  men's  sermons ;  yet  this  would  have  been  done  by 
committing  them  to  memory,  or  appropriating  their  trains  of  thought. 
Scholars  who  make  a  specialty  of  Church  History  might  settle  the 
question  for  us. 

^  Mediaeval  Preaching,  Introd.  p.  xxii. 


PREPARATION   AND    DELIVERY.  435 

The  practice  of  reading  sermons,  as  a  frequent 
thing,  is  generally  believed  to  have  originated  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  "  Those  who  were  licensed 
to  preach,"  says  Burnet,  in  his  History  of  the 
Reformation,  "being  often  accused  for  their  ser- 
mons, and  complaints  being  made  to  the  King  by 
hot  men  on  both  sides,  they  came  generally  to  write 
and  read  their  sermons,  and  thence  the  reading  of 
sermons  grew  into  a  practice  in  this  church ;  in 
which  if  there  was  not  that  heat  of  fire  which  the 
friars  had  shown  in  their  declamations,  so  that  the 
passions  of  the  hearers  were  not  so  much  wrought 
on  by  it,  yet  it  has  produced  the  greatest  treasure 
of  weighty,  grave,  and  solid  sermons  that  ever  the 
Church  of  God  had ;  which  does  in  a  great  measure 
compensate  that  seeming  flatness  to  vulgar  ears,  that 
is  in  the  delivery  of  them. "  ^  The  practice  increased 
in  consequence  of  the  civil  wars,  especially  through 
strong  dislike  to  the  impassioned  preaching  of  the 
Independents.  The  impression  long  prevailed  in 
England  that  extemporaneous  preaching  was  the 
invention  of  the  Puritans.  A  curate  was  once  driven 
from  a  London  pulpit  because  he  was  accustomed  to 
raise  his  eyes  from  his  manuscript  while  preach- 
ing! 2  Charles  II.,  not  accustomed,  on  the  Conti- 
nent, to  this  tamer  method,  vainly  attempted  to 
correct  it,  as  shown  by  the  following  curious  letter, 
extracted  by  Gresley  from  the  statute-book  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge:  — 

Vice-Chancellor  and  Gentlemen  :  Whereas  his  Majesty 
is  informed  that  the  practice  of  reading  sermons  is  generally 
taken  up  by  the  preachers  before  the  university,  and  there- 
fore continues  even  before  himself;  his  Majesty  hath  com- 
manded me  to  signify  to  you  his  pleasure,  that  the  said 

1  Quoted  by  Gresley  on  Preaching,  p.  391. 

2  Mediaeval  Preaching,  7?.,  and  p.  xv. 


436  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

practice,  which  took  its  beginning  from  the  disorders  of  the 
late  times,  be  wholly  laid  aside,  and  that  the  said  preachers 
deliver  their  sermons,  both  in  Latin  and  English,  by  mem- 
ory, without  books ;  as  being  a  way  of  preaching  which  his 
Majesty  judgeth  most  agreeable  to  the  use  of  foreign  churches, 
to  the  custom  of  the  university  heretofore,  and  to  the  nature 
of  that  holy  exercise  :  and  that  his  Majesty's  command  in 
these  premises  be  duly  regarded  and  observed,  his  further 
pleasure  is,  that  the  names  of  all  such  ecclesiastical  persons 
as  shall  continue  the  present  supine  and  slothful  way  of 
preaching  be,  from  time  to  time,  signified  to  him  by  the 
Vice-Chancellor  for  the  time  being,  on  pain  of  his  Majesty's 
displeasure. 

Monmouth. 
Oct.  8th,  1674. 

The  effort  failed,  and  reading  was  frequently  prac- 
tised in  the  Church  of  England.  To  this  day,  how- 
ever, it  is  quite  rare  on  the  Continent,  and  among 
Romanists  everywhere,  and  is  common  only  among 
certain  Protestants  of  Great  Britain  and  America. 
The  growing  number  of  Episcopal  ministers  in  this 
country  who  extemporize,  are  very  popular,  even 
among  their  own  brethren,  if  they  manage  it  effec- 
tively. Many  leading  Presbyterian  ministers,  and 
some  of  their  ecclesiastical  authorities,  have  discour- 
aged reading,  and  even  vehemently  condemned  it. 

Most  of  the  eminent  examples  of  reading  admit  of 
some  explanation.  Jonathan  Edwards,  late  in  life, 
regretted  the  practice,  and  believed  that  it  was 
better  to  preach  memoriter  for  the  most  part,  some- 
times extemporizing.^  Dr.  Chalmers,  so  often  ad- 
duced, as  if  the  example  of  a  very  peculiar  man 
could  establish  a  rule,  declared  himself  unable  to 
extemporize.  But  look  at  his  style.  He  was  ex- 
tremely, in  fact  excessively  fond  of  long  sentences, 

1  Hoppin,  p.  494. 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  437 

formed  of  nicely  balanced  clauses,  with  the  corre- 
sponding terms  in  each  clause  often  indicated  by 
alliteration,  and  he  had  an  exceeding  desire  to 
achieve  quaint  felicities  of  phraseology.  His  images 
are  frequently  drawn  on  a  grand  and  elaborate  scale, 
and  he  was  fastidious  as  to  their  color  and  finish. 
These  well-known  peculiarities  go  far  to  account  for 
his  persuasion  that  he  could  not  extemporize.  It 
would  be  almost  as  difficult  to  improvise  a  choral 
ode,  as  some  of  those  elaborate  passages  in  which 
he  delighted.  And,  after  all.  Dr.  Way  land  states,  ^ 
*' A  gentleman  who  was  in  the  habit  of  hearing  him, 
has  assured  me  that  his  extempore  discourses,  de- 
livered to  operatives  in  the  outskirts  of  Glasgow,  were 
far  more  effective,  and  more  truly  eloquent,  than  the 
sermons  which  he  delivered  with  so  much  applause 
in  the  Tron  church  of  that  city;"  —  and  there  is 
other  testimony  to  the  same  effect. 

When  we  come  to  consider  which  mode  may  be 
the  most  desirable  for  ourselves  and  our  times,  we 
can  only  inquire  which  method  is  generally  best.  No 
one  of  the  three  can  be  properly  set  forth  as  exclu- 
sive. For  a  process  so  complex  as  that  of  preparing 
and  delivering  a  sermon,  a  process  embracing  such 
a  multitude  of  diverse  and  variable  elements,  it  ought 
to  be  manifest  beforehand  that  only  general  rules 
can  be  determined.  And  in  such  an  inquiry  partic- 
ular cases  will  commonly  prove  nothing.  Some  men 
have  spoken  with  great  power  who  could  not  write  a 
word.  Even  now,  when  the  art  of  writing  is  so  gen- 
erally diffused,  we  may  hear  preachers  who  are,  in 
some  important  respects,  highly  effective,  while  quite 
unequal  to  the  merely  mechanical  task  of  writing  a 

1  Ministry  of  the  Gospel,  p.  126.  See  also  the  account  of  Chal- 
mers' speeches  in  the  General  Assembly,  in  Hanna's  Memoir,  Vol 
IV.  114,  199,  438. 


438  THE   THREE   METHODS    OF 

discourse.  Among  those  who  handle  the  pen  with 
ease,  there  are  men,  self-educated,  who  have  become 
popular  and  really  powerful  preachers,  yet  who  find 
written  composition  very  difficult,  because  they  have 
never  practised  it  nor  in  any  wise  trained  themselves 
to  it.  Spurgeon  somewhere  speaks  very  strongly  of 
the  drudgery  and  difficulty  of  composition,  as  com- 
pared with  the  ease  and  rapture  of  free  speech.  The 
one  had  become  familiar  to  him,  the  other  was  still 
new  and  irksome.  It  is  no  wonder,  if,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  find  many  whose  whole  training  and  prac- 
tice has  been  in  writing,  and  for  whom,  therefore, 
it  is  difficult  and  apparently  impossible  to  speak  what 
has  not  been  written.  Moreover,  men  of  high  talent 
can  speak  effectively  in  any  way.  Luther,  laid  on  his 
back,  bound  hand  and  foot,  would  have  preached  im- 
pressively. The  rude  drayman  refuses  to  believe  that 
it  lessens  a  horse's  power  of  draught  to  rein  him 
tightly,  because  he  has  a  very  strong  horse  which 
can  pull  immense  loads  when  reined.  We  call  him 
foolish,  and  in  regard  to  other  questions  reason  in 
the  same  fashion.  Each  of  the  methods  of  preaching 
has  been  and  is  now  employed  by  some  men  with 
admirable  effect.  Something  in  the  subject  or  the 
circumstances  may  at  times  render  it  advisable  to 
adopt  a  different  method  from  that  usually  em- 
ployed. Some  ministers  may  be  compelled  to  pur- 
sue one  or  another  by  their  very  peculiar  constitution, 
or  by  the  confirmed  habits  of  a  long  life.  But  which 
is  generally  best? 

Great  extravagance  is  frequently  to  be  observed  in 
the  discussion  of  this  question,  on  all  sides.  For  ex- 
ample, some  will  say  that  reading  a  sermon  is  not 
preaching  at  all.  Those  who  argue  against  extempo- 
raneous preaching  very  often  speak  as  if  it  meant 
preaching  without  any  preparation.      Of  course  the 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  439 

proper  thing  to  be  done  is  calmly  to  consider  the 
advantages  and  disadvantages^  so  far  as  they  can  be 
exhibited,  of  each  method,  and  thus  decide  which 
is  to  be  preferred. 

§  2.     READING. 

(i)  To  write  sermons  and  read  them,  is  a  method 
which  has  obviously  some  important  advantages. 
These  exist  alike  with  reference  to  preparation,  to 
delivery,  and  to  the  preacher's  usefulness  in  other 
respects. 

(^)  Writing  greatly  assists  the  work  of  preparation, 
by  rendering  it  easier  to  fix  the  mind  upon  the  sub- 
ject. Mental  application  is  facilitated  by  any  appro- 
priate bodily  action ;  and  men  who  do  not  write  often 
find  it  necessary  to  walk  the  floor,  or  in  general  to 
assume  some  constrained  posture  or  perform  some 
regularly  recurring  act.^  Now  writing  involves  a  high 
degree  of  that  control  of  body  which  so  contributes 
to  control  of  the  mind,  and  has  at  the  same  time  the 
advantage  of  possessing  a  closer  natural  relation  to 
thought  than  any  other  act  except  speaking  itself. 
Indeed,  every  one  knows  how  greatly  writing  helps 
to  keep  the  thoughts  from  wandering. 

(b)  Besides,  writing  a  sermon  compels  to  greater 
completeness  of  preparation.  He  who  prepares  with- 
out writing  may,  and  as  a  rule  ought  to,  follow  out  all 
the  developments  and  expansions  of  his  thoughts  as 
far  as  the  discourse  is  to  carry  them ;  but  he  who 
writes  must  do  this,  is  compelled  to  it. 

(c)  Still  further,  writing  serves  to  secure,  in  several 
respects,  greater  excellence  of  style.  As  a  general 
thing,  unwritten  speech  cannot  equal  that  which  is 
written,  in  grammatical  correctness,  in  precision,  con- 

1  It  was  the  habit  of  Schleiermacher  to  lean  out  of  a  window  for 
hours  while  composing  his  sermons. 


440  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

ciseness,  smoothness,  and  rhetorical  finish.  These 
are  highly  important  properties  of  style,  and  particu- 
larly with  respect  to  the  demands  of  some  audiences, 
occasions,  or  subjects.  Thus,  if  one  is  discussing  a 
controverted  point  of  doctrine,  in  the  presence  of  per- 
sons ready  to  misunderstand  or  misrepresent  him,  it 
is  even  more  than  usually  desirable  that  his  language 
should  be  precise  and  unmistakable.  Some  hearers 
are  very  fastidious  as  to  the  preacher's  finish  of  style. 
His  language,  as  well  as  his  manner  of  delivery  and 
his  dress,  must  be  comme  il  faut^  or  they  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  him.  Such  fastidiousness  may 
not  deserve  any  high  respect,  but  of  course  it  should 
not  be  needlessly  disregarded.  And  sermons  on  an 
occasion  of  academic  or  other  specially  literary  in- 
terest, are  commonly  and  naturally  expected  to  pos- 
sess an  unusual  degree  of  flowing  smoothness  and 
elegant  finish.  The  preacher  himself,  too,  especially 
the  young  preacher  of  fine  literary  cultivation,  is  apt 
to  be  sensitive  as  to  the  minute  faults  of  style;  and 
writing  enables  him  better  to  meet  the  demands  of 
his  own  taste. 

{d)  As  regards  the  delivery  of  the  sermon,  this 
method  has  the  advantage  of  placing  the  preacher 
more  at  his  ease,  both  before  and  during  the  delivery. 
Having  the  sermon  written,  he  will  be  preserved,  and 
knows  that  he  will  be,  from  any  utter  and  mortifying 
failure.  It  is  a  great  relief  to  escape  the  tremulous 
jand  often  distressing  anxiety  which  one  is  apt  other- 
wise to  feel.  The  preacher  who  means  to  read,  has  a 
far  better  chance  to  sleep  soundly  on  Saturday  night. 
It  is  also  an  advantage  to  be  collected  and  confident 
while  dehvering  the  sermon,  rather  than  oppressed  by 
nervous  solicitude,  or  driven  wild  by  uncontrollable 
excitement.  Some  preachers  find  that  reading  saves 
them  from  an  excessive  volubility,  or  an  extreme 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  441 

vehemence  which  otherwise  they  find  it  hard  to  con- 
trol ;  and  very  many  fear  that  without  the  manuscript 
they  would  be  utterly  crushed  by  the  dread  of  break- 
ing down. 

Besides,  writing  sermons  tends  to  promote  the 
preacher's  usefulness  in  several  other  respects. 

(^)  The  written  discourse  can  be  used  on  subse- 
quent occasions  without  the  necessity  of  renewed 
preparation,  and  thus  frequently  saves  a  good  deal  of 
time  and  labor. 

(/)  The  sermons  remain  for  publication,  if  ever 
that  should  be  desirable.  Many  a  truly  great  preacher, 
and  widely  useful  in  his  day,  has  left  but  a  fading, 
vanishing  name,  while  some  contemporary  of  perhaps 
no  greater  ability,  but  who  wrote  his  discourses,  is 
still  known  and  still  useful.  For  example,  compare 
Fenelon  with  Bourdaloue. 

(^)  And  then  the  practice  gives  facility  in  writing, 
which  in  our  day  is  a  highly  important  means  of  use- 
fulness. The  successful  preacher  has  now  many  op- 
portunities to  publish,  and  it  is  apt  to  become  a  sort 
of  reproach  to  him,  diminishing  his  influence,  if  he  is 
not  sometimes  heard  from  through  the  press. 

(2)  To  write  and  read  has  thus  a  number  of  advan- 
tages, some  of  them  decidedly  important.  What,  now, 
are  its  disadvantages  ? 

(a)  If  writing  aids  in  thinking,  it  is  apt  to  render 
one  largely  dependent  on  such  assistance.  Especially 
objectionable  is  the  fact  that  this  practice  accustoms 
the  preacher  to  think  connectedly  only  as  fast  as  he 
can  write,  when  it  is  more  natural  and  more  con- 
venient that  a  man  should  think  as  fast  as  he  can 
talk. 

{U)  And  if  writing  compels  the  preacher  to  go  over 
the  ground  more  completely,  it  is  not  always  done 
more  thoroughly     The  thinking  is  more  extensive, 


442  THE   THREE    METHODS    OF 

but  may  be  less  intensive.  Being  obliged  to  run  over 
the  surface  everywhere,  the  preacher  may  go  beneath 
it  nowhere.  If  many  sermons  are  spoken  with  very 
superficial  preparation,  so  with  very  superficial  prep- 
aration are  many  sermons  written.  There  is  an  im- 
mense amount  of  strictly  extemporaneous  writing. 
People  are  apt  to  think  that  what  is  written  and  read 
must  have  been  carefully  prepared,  but  they  are  often 
egregiously  mistaken.  A  highly  popular  preacher 
once  said,  —  of  course  half  as  a  jest,  —  that  he  was  so 
frequently  compelled  to  get  up  his  sermons  hastily, 
as  to  make  it  indispensable  that  he  should  write,  in 
order  to  give  them  at  least  the  appearance  of  careful 
preparation. 

(c)  Akin  to  this  last  is  the  disadvantage  of  con- 
suming so  much  time  in  the  merely  mechanical 
effort  of  writing,  —  time  which  might  often  be  more 
profitably  spent  upon  the  thoughts  of  the  discourse, 
or  upon  the  preacher's  general  improvement.  True, 
the  extemporaneous  speaker,  in  his  earlier  efforts, 
needs  to  spend  no  less  time,  but  rather  more  in 
preparation ;  but  if  laborious  at  the  outset,  his  power 
of  working  out  the  details  will  rapidly  increase,  and 
the  time  necessary  for  this  become  much  less,  while 
the  writer  must  as  long  as  he  lives  spend  a  number  oi 
hours  in  the  task  of  writing.  Now  the  pastors  o( 
large  churches  in  this  country  are  often,  indeed  com- 
monly, expected  to  do  the  work  of  several  different 
men.  Their  pastoral  and  social  work,  the  various 
demands  of  their  position  as  leaders  of  thought  and 
benevolent  activity,  the  calls  for  general  denomina- 
tional service,  and  the  imperative  need  of  constant 
self-improvement  in  order  to  keep  fresh  and  growing, 
all  press  very  heavily  upon  our  over-burdened  pas- 
tors. In  such  a  state  of  things  it  becomes  a  very 
serious  matter  that  a  preacher  should  condemn  him* 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  443 

self,  for  life,  to  spend  every  week  six,  eight,  twelve  hours 
in  merely  writing  out  each  of  two  sermons ;  and  that 
when  by  far  the  most  important  and  difficult  portion 
of  his  preparation,  the  selection  of  text  and  subject, 
interpretation,  invention  of  materials,  and  arrange- 
ment of  the  discourse,  ought  to  have  been  completed 
before  he  begins  to  write. 

(d)  Again,  this  method  compels  the  preacher  to 
follow  out  t)\3.t  plan  of  the  discourse  which  he  origin- 
ally adopted,  though  in  the  course  of  preparation  it 
may  become  evident  that  another  plan  would  be  much 
better.  This  must  be  a  very  frequent  experience, 
especially  when  the  writing  begins  before  the  plan  has 
been  very  well  matured.  Who  has  not  found,  when 
more  than  half  through  his  preparation,  that  "  thirdly  " 
ought  to  be  "  first,"  or  even  that  there  had  better  be  a 
different  mode  of  stating  the  subject,  with  a  corre- 
sponding modification  of  the  whole  treatment?  How 
often  will  tired  and  hurried  human  nature  endure  to 
throw  away  all  that  has  been  written,  and  begin  anew? 
Moreover,  if  haste  or  negligence  in  the  preparation 
has  produced  faults  of  detail,  most  readers  find  it  very 
difficult  to  correct  these  in  the  course  of  delivery, 
however  clearly  they  may  then  be  perceived. 

{e)  This  method  also  deprives  the  preacher's  think- 
ing of  the  benefit  of  all  that  mental  quickening  which 
is  produced  by  the  presence  of  the  congregation.  As 
to  thoughts  which  are  then  for  the  first  time  struck 
out,  it  is  true  that  men  of  rare  flexibility,  tact,  and 
grace  can  often  introduce  them  effectively  in  connec- 
tion with  their  reading.  But  such  men  establish  no 
general  rule,  and  the  great  mass  of  those  who  read 
have  to  lose  such  thoughts  altogether,  or  to  introduce 
them  awkwardly  and  with  comparatively  poor  effect. 
And  besides  the  distinct  thoughts  which  occur  only 
in  the  act  of  delivery,  there  is  something  much  more 


444  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

important  in  the  warmer  color  which  the  now  kindled 
and  glowing  mind  would  give  to  the  whole  body  of 
thought,  in  those  differences  of  hue  and  tone  which 
change  the  mass  of  prepared  material  into  living, 
breathing,  burning  speech.  Yonder  stand  the  autumn 
trees,  with  their  many  colors  all  dull  and  tame  beneath 
the  ashen  sky;  but  presently  the  evening  sun  bursts 
through  the  clouds,  and  lights  up  the  forest  with  an 
almost  unearthly  glory.  Not  less  great  is  the  differ- 
ence between  preparation  and  speech,  for  every  one 
who  was  born  to  be  a  speaker.  Now  whatever  of  this 
concerns  the  mere  mode  of  utterance,  the  reader  may 
to  some  extent  achieve.  But  all  that  belongs  to  the 
transfigured  conception,  to  the  changed  color  and 
heightened  tone  of  expression,  which  in  free  speaking 
would  show  itself  with  ease  and  completeness,  all  this 
he  can  but  partially  feel,  and  is  powerless  to  manifest. 
It  is  true,  as  we  are  sometimes  told,  that  by  an  effort 
of  imagination  when  composing,  one  may  to  some  ex- 
tent bring  before  his  mind  the  congregation,  and  feel 
by  anticipation  the  quickening  of  its  presence ;  but 
there  are  few  respects  in  which  imagination  falls  so 
far  below  the  actual  experience. 

(/)  As  to  delivery  itself,  reading  is  of  necessity 
less  effective,  and  in  most  cases  immensely  less  effec- 
tive, for  all  the  great  purposes  of  oratory,  than  speak- 
ing. Greater  coldness  of  manner  is  almost  inevitable. 
If  one  attempts  to  be  very  animated  or  pathetic,  it 
will  look  unnatural.  The  tones  of  voice  are  monoto- 
nous, or  have  a  forced  variety.  The  gestures  are 
nearly  always  unnatural,  because  it  is  not  natural  to 
gesticulate  much  in  reading ;  and  they  scarcely  ever 
raise  us  higher  than  to  feel  that  really  this  man  reads 
almost  like  speaking.  The  mere  turning  of  the 
pages,  however  skilfully  done,  breaks  the  continuity  of 
delivery.    In  the  midst,  perhaps,  of  some  impassioned 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  445 

passage,  while  the  preacher's  face  glows,  his  action 
has  become  varied  and  passionate,  and  he  has  wrought 
us  up  to  a  high  degree  of  sympathy  with  him,  pres- 
ently his  right  hand  descends  and  flings  over  a  leaf, 
and  the  spell  is  broken ;  we  are  made  to  remember 
what  we  are  doing,  are  reminded  that,  after  all,  this  is 
not  living  speech,  but  only  splendid  reading, — that 
we  are  not,  as  a  moment  ago  we  seemed  to  feel,  in 
immediate  and  fully  sympathizing  contact  with  the 
burning  soul  of  the  speaker,  but  **  that  paper  there  " 
is  between  us.  Consider,  too,  that  the  most  potent 
element  in  the  delivery  of  a  real  orator  is  often  the 
expressiveness  of  the  eye.  No  man  can  describe  this ; 
he  cannot  fully  recall  it  afterwards,  and  at  the  moment 
he  is  too  completely  under  its  influence  to  think  of 
analyzing  and  explaining  it.  But  every  man  has  felt 
it,  —  the  marvellous,  magical,  at  times  almost  super- 
human power  of  an  orator's  eye.  That  look,  how  it 
pierces  our  inmost  soul,  now  kindling  us  to  passion, 
now  melting  us  into  tenderness.  And  all  the  better 
that  it  is  not  felt  as  a  thing  apart  from  speech,  but 
blends  with  it  more  thoroughly  than  gesture  can,  more 
completely  than  music  blends  with  poetry,  and  rein- 
forces, with  all  its  mysterious  potency,  the  power  of 
thought  and  sentiment  and  sound.  Now  in  reading, 
this  wonderful  expressiveness  of  the  eye  is  interrupted, 
grievously  diminished  in  power,  reduced  to  be  nothing 
better  than  occasional  sunbeams,  breaking  out  for  a 
moment  among  wintry  clouds. 

In  a  word,  reading  is  an  essentially  different  thing 
from  speaking.  When  well  executed,  reading  has  a 
power  of  its  own,  but  it  is  unnatural  to  substitute  it 
for  speaking,  and  it  can  at  best  only  approximate, 
never  fully  attain,  the  same  effect. 

ig)  It  should  be  added,  that  reading  is  more  injuri- 
ous to  the  voice.     Any  one  who  is  so  unfortunate  as 


446  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

to  have  become  subject  to  laryngitis,  will  soon  find 
that  he  can  speak  with  much  less  fatigue  than  he  can 
read.  This  shows  a  natural  difference,  though  per- 
sons  whose  vocal  organs  are  not  diseased  may  not 
notice  it.  There  are  several  causes  which  combine  to 
produce  the  *'  minister's  sore-throat,"  which  is  so  com- 
mon.^ The  practice  of  reading  sermons  is  by  no 
means  the  principal  one,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  has  some  effect. 

{h)  That  the  habit  of  reading  should  make  one 
afraid  to  attempt  speaking  without  a  manuscript,  is 
not  a  necessary  consequence.  Every  enlightened 
defender  of  reading  would  urge  that  the  preacher 
ought  to  practise  himself  in  unwritten  speech  also, 
and  thus  be  able  to  speak  when  suddenly  called  on ; 
and  certainly  there  are  men  who  habitually  read,  and 
yet  upon  occasion  can  extemporize  very  effectively. 
Yet  the  manifest  tendency,  and  the  common  result  of 
habitual  reading,  is  to  make  one  dependent  and  timid ; 
and  such  preachers  often  miss  opportunities  of  doing 
good,  and  are  sometimes  made  ridiculous  by  their 
inability  to  preach  from  not  having  "  brought  along 
any  sermons."  Such  a  slavish  and  helpless  depen- 
dence upon  manuscript  is  almost  universally  felt  to 
be  painful,  if  not  pitiful.  For  this  and  other  reasons, 
uniform  reading  is  very  seldom  advocated,  though 
still  often  practised  in  some  quarters. 

(3)  The  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  reading 
sermons  having  been  considered,  a  few  suggestions 
may  now  be  offered  to  those  who  adopt  this  method. 

If  you  read,  do  not  try  to  disguise  the  fact.  Co- 
querel  remarks  that  all  the  artifices  practised  for  this 
purpose  **  have  bad  grace  and  little  success.  If  one 
reads  in  the  pulpit,  it  is  better  to  read  openly  and 
boldly,  taking  no  other  pains  than  to  have  a  manu- 
1  See  below,  chap.  ii. 


PREPARATION   AND    DELIVERY.  447 

script  easily  legible  and  properly  smoothed  down  on 
the  front  of  the  pulpit ;  then,  to  turn  the  leaves  with- 
out affecting  a  disguise,  which  is  useless  and  unbe- 
coming. We  may  be  certain  that  the  hearers  are  not 
deceived  in  this  respect ;  they  always  know  when  an 
orator  is  reading."  ^ 

But  more.  Do  not  attempt  to  convert  the  reading 
into  speaking.  The  two  are,  as  already  said,  essen- 
tially different.  Is  it  possible  for  a  man  to  speak 
as  if  he  were  reading?  Let  it  be  tried,  and  he  who 
comes  nearest  to  success  will  most  effectually  spoil 
his  speaking.  But  on  the  other  hand,  is  it  really 
possible  to  read  as  if  you  were  speaking?  School- 
masters often  tell  their  boys,  "  Read  it  just  as  if  you 
were  talking ;  "  and  the  effort  to  do  this  may  help  to 
cure  the  school-boy  sing-song,  by  making  the  read- 
ing more  like  talking.  But  in  fact,  no  one  can  read 
precisely  as  he  talks,  and  no  one  ought  to.  In  private 
reading  and  private  conversation,  probably  no  con- 
siderate person  will  deny  this  essential  difference.  Is 
it  not  similarly  and  equally  true  as  regards  public 
reading  and  public  speaking?  Reading  before  a 
large  audience  will,  of  course,  differ  from  quiet  read- 
ing to  a  few  persons ;  and  where  the  matter  read  is 
preceptive  or  hortatory,  something  which  we  person- 
ally desire  to  impress  upon  the  hearers,  this  also  will 
give  a  peculiar  character  to  the  reading.  But  still  it 
is  reading.  The  attempt  to  convert  it  into  speaking 
is  against  nature,  must  fail,  and  ought  to  fail.  "  It 
seems  to  us  that  when  a  preacher,  for  whatever 
reason,  reads  his  sermon,  then  instead  of  wishing  to 
produce  the  appearance  of  free  speaking,  which  is 
always  in  some  measure  an  attempt  at  deception,  he 
should  make  it  his  aim  to  read  well;  somewhat  as 
when  one  with  warmth   and   interest   reads   to   his 

1  Coquerel,  p.  177. 


448  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

family  a  printed  discourse.'*  To  this  view  of  the 
German  writer,  Palmer,  we  should  say,  Yes,  some- 
what ;  but  with  the  difference  naturally  produced  by 
the  fact  that  you  are  reading  to  a  large  assembly, 
and  reading  what  intensely  interests  yourself.  Palmer 
proceeds : — 

**  To  hear  a  good  thing  well  read,  is  always  a  pleas- 
ure. But  instead  of  this,  one  man  gives  himself  no 
trouble  with  his  reading,  but  drawls  out  the  contents 
of  his  manuscript  with  monotonous  indifference  and 
tediousness.  This  is  revolting.  But  another  falls 
into  the  opposite  extreme.  Feeling  that  reading  is  a 
fault,  he  wishes  to  make  amends  by  declaiming  his 
sermon  with  a  powerful  pathos.  This  makes  a  con- 
trary impression,  for  the  more  exaggerated  the  decla- 
mation and  action  in  the  case,  the  more  glaring  the 
contrast  produced  by  the  extremely  prosaic  act  of 
looking  into  the  manuscript.  He  who  is  so  terribly 
in  earnest  with  what  he  is  saying,  ought  also,  people 
think,  to  know  what  he  wants  to  say ;  his  zeal  ought, 
as  is  everywhere  else  the  case,  to  put  words  into  his 
mouth.  A  modest,  quiet,  but  expressive  reading 
would  be  more  appropriate."  ^ 

We  add  again,  that  the  reading  may  sometimes  be- 
come very  earnest,  even  if  not  impassioned,  but  it 
must  still  be  reading.  Let  not  the  reader  try  to 
assume  postures,  gestures,  or  looks,  such  as  he  thinks 
would  be  appropriate  to  one  speaking  these  words. 
To  do  so  is  not  natural,  it  is  to  be  an  actor ;  and  act- 
ing, however  skilful  and  however  much  admired,  is  in 
the  pulpit  a  crime,  —  and,  as  the  diplomatists  say,  not 
only  a  crime,  but  worse,  a  blunder.  Nay,  let  the 
reader  know  that  he  is  reading;  let  him  mean  to 
read,  and  mean  to  have  everybody  understand  that 
he  is  reading;  and  then  let  him  try  to  read  well,  so 

1  Palmer,  Horn.  ss.  526,  527. 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  449 

as  to  impress  the  truth  upon  his  hearers,  and  do 
them  good.^  The  observance  of  this  distinction  may 
also  solve  the  much  discussed  question,  whether  it 
is  well  for  one  who  reads  to  interpolate  unwritten 
passages.  If  he  attempts  to  do  this  without  having 
the  difference  observed,  it  will  fail.  Alexander  says, 
"  The  whole  train  of  operations  is  different  in  reading 
or  reciting  a  discourse  and  in  pronouncing  it  extem- 
pore. If  I  may  borrow  a  figure  from  engines,  the 
mind  is  geared  differently.  No  man  goes  from  one 
track  to  the  other  without  a  painful  jog  at  the 
*  switch.'  And  this  is,  I  suppose,  the  reason  why  Dr. 
Chalmers  .  .  .  cautions  his  students  against  every 
attempt  to  mingle  reading  with  free  speaking.  .  .  . 
It  requires  the  practice  of  years  to  dovetail  an  ex- 
temporaneous paragraph  gracefully  into  a  written 
sermon."  ^  This  is  true  where  one  wishes  the  two  to 
sound  alike.  But  if  his  reading  does  not  profess  nor 
attempt  to  be  speaking,  but  simply  reading,  then  he 
may,  wherever  there  is  occasion,  introduce  something 
unwritten,  either  in  the  familiar  tone  appropriate  to 
some  additional  illustration  or  remark,  or  even  in  the 
outburst  of  some  impassioned  appeal.  It  will  be  dis- 
tinct from  the  reading,  but  this  may  give  variety; 
and  the  reading  need  not  seem  flat  when  he  returns 
to  it,  because  it  did  not  profess  to  be  speaking.  This 
is  in  fact  the  practice  of  many  skilful  readers  of  ser- 
mons, though  it  may  not  be  their  theory;  nature 
often  triumphs  over  wrong  theory,  and  leads  men  to 
read  simply  as  earnest  reading,  and  then  to  diverge, 
when  they  see  proper,  into  speaking  as  a  distinct 
thing.  If  those  who  read  sermons  would  settle  it  well 
in  their  minds  that  reading  is  not  speaking,  and  can- 

1  Pittenger  (Extempore  Speech,  p.  29),  forcibly  defends  this  same 
view. 

2  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  p.  142. 


450  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

not  be  converted  into  it,  and  would  give  nature  free 
play  in  their  reading,  the  advantages  of  this  method 
would  remain  intact,  and  its  disadvantages  would  be 
considerably  diminished.  Whether,  even  then,  read- 
ing can  be  made  as  impressive,  in  general,  as  well- 
prepared  speaking,  is  another  question.  The  remark 
may  be  added,  that  where  defective  vision,  or  bad 
light,  or  a  low  pulpit  makes  the  reading  difficult,  it 
would  be  better  just  quietly  to  hold  up  the  manu- 
script, so  that  it  can  be  seen.  If  the  pages  are  sepa- 
rate, and  not  too  large,  this  can  be  done  without 
awkwardness ;  and  if  the  people  see  that  the  preacher 
does  not  pretend  to  be  speaking,  but  reads  with  a 
straightforward  simplicity,  they  will  rather  like  his 
openness,  and  at  any  rate  will  in  a  few  minutes  grow 
used  to  what  at  first  looked  odd. 

If  any  one  objects  to  all  this,  and  insists  that  it  is 
necessary,  whether  from  the  nature  of  the  case  or 
from  the  notions  and  feelings  of  the  people,  to  keep 
the  manuscript  out  of  sight,  and  make  the  reading 
look  as  much  as  possible  like  speaking,  then  he  is  in 
fact  saying  what  has  not  been  said  in  this  discussion, 
that  a  preacher  ought  never  to  read  sermons  at  all. 

§  3.      RECITATION. 

As  we  have  seen,  recitation,  or  repeating  from 
memory  what  has  been  written  and  learned,  is  a 
method  of  preaching  which  not  a  few  distinguished 
men  have  followed.  It  has  been  defended  by  even  so 
acute  and  sensible  a  writer  as  Coquerel.^  On  the 
other  hand  Phillips  Brooks  speaks  of  it  as  "  a  method 
which  some  men  practise,  but  which  I  hope  nobody 
commends."  ^      It    has   had    more    general    use   in 

1  Obs.  Prat,  sur  la  Pred.  p.  181  £f. 

2  Lect.  on  Preaching,  p.  171. 


PREPARATION    AND   DELIVERY.  45 1 

Europe  than  in  our  country ;  but  a  few  things  con- 
cerning it  should  be  said. 

(i)  This  has  all  the  advantages  of  the  first  method, 
as  regards  more  complete  and  finished  preparation, 
practice  in  writing,  and  possession  of  the  sermon  for 
subsequent  use  and  for  publication.  There  is  here, 
however,  no  preservation  from  utter  failure,  and  from 
the  dread  of  failure,  but  quite  the  contrary.  It  has 
two  advantages  which  the  former  method  does  not 
possess.  To  recite  one's  own  composition  is  really 
one  kind  of  speaking,  —  and  we  have  seen  that  read- 
ing is  not.  To  recite  is  speaking  under  difficulties 
and  disadvantages,  but  it  is  speaking.  It  is  not  against 
nature  to  treat  it  as  such,  nor  impossible  to  make  it 
approximate  somewhat  closely  to  the  excellence 
and  power  of  well-prepared  free  speech.  The  other 
advantage  is,  that  recitation  cultivates  the  memory. 
Any  real  improvement  of  the  memory  is  certainly  a 
matter  of  great  value ;  men  who  habitually  recite 
must  always  gain  benefit  in  this  respect,  and  with 
some,  the  results  are  remarkable.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten, however,  that  while  recitation  is  in  this  supe- 
rior to  reading,  it  is  not  superior  to  extemporaneous 
speaking;  for  the  power  of  verbal  memorizing  is 
really  less  valuable  than  the  ability  to  retain  ideas 
with  only  such  of  the  words  as  are  essential  to  their 
precise  expression. 

(2)  As  to  disadvantages,  recitation  labors  under 
many  of  those  which  attend  upon  reading.  There 
is  here  still  less  opportunity  for  correcting  errors 
observed  at  the  moment  of  delivery,  for  interpolating 
thoughts  which  then  for  the  first  time  occur,  or  for 
giving  new  shape  and  color  to  the  thoughts,  and 
new  force  to  the  expressions,  under  the  excitement  of 
actual  speaking.  The  mind  is  apt  to  be  all  in 
shackles,  having   little   use   for   any  of  its  faculties 


452  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

except  memory.  In  the  exercise  of  this,  there  is 
often  a  confusion  of  local  with  what  might  be  called 
logical  memory;  the  recollection  of  what  comes  next 
on  the  page,  and  that  of  the  connection  of  thought, 
though  sometimes  aiding  each  other,  will  at  other 
times  become  confused  and  distracting.  There  is 
also  with  this  method  a  still  greater  consumption  of 
time  in  preparation.  He  who  adopts  it  has  not  only 
to  prepare  the  materials  and  form  the  plan  of  the  dis- 
course, as  must  be  done  upon  any  method,  and  not 
only  to  spend  many  hours  in  writing  it  out  in  full,  as 
the  reader  also  must  do,  but  to  give  other  hours,  and 
with  most  men  not  a  few,  to  the  task  of  memorizing. 
For  one  who  preaches  two  or  three  times  a  week  to 
write  and  memorize  all  his  sermons,  is,  if  not  impos- 
sible, certainly  incompatible  with  patient  and  pro- 
found thinking  in  preparation,  with  wide  general 
improvement,  and  with  the  proper  performance  of  a 
pastor's  other  duties.  The  painful  dread  of  failure  is 
also  a  very  serious  objection  to  recitation,  a  dread 
from  which  the  preacher  can  for  no  moment  be  free 
till  the  delivery  begins,  and  which  is  then  only 
heightened.  For  the  extemporaneous  speaker,  anxi- 
ety as  to  failure  may  cause  a  helpful  excitement ;  but 
to  him  who  recites  it  brings  no  benefit,  but  only  dis- 
tress. We  are  told  that  Bourdaloue  would  often  keep 
his  eyes  shut  throughout  the  sermon ;  and  upon  be- 
ing asked  the  reason,  explained  that  he  was  afraid  he 
might  see  some  occurrence  which  would  distract  his 
attention,  and  cause  him  to  forget.  In  so  great  a  man 
this  is  lamentable,  pitiable, — of  course  it  is  an 
'extreme  case.  Furthermore,  the  delivery  of  what  is 
recited  must  always  be  more  or  less  artificial.  What- 
ever may  be  done  with  occasional  brief  passages,  such 
as  Lord  Brougham  boasted  his  ability  to  introduce 
into  an  extemporaneous  discourse  without  its  being 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  453 

possible  for  the  auditor  to  distinguish  between  them, 
we  question  whether  any  man  could  so  recite  an 
entire  and  extended  discourse, — verbatim  recitation, 
—  as  to  prevent  the  audience  from  detecting,  espe- 
cially from  feelingy  the  difference.  Certainly  very 
few  can  do  it,  and  we  are  discussing  general  questions. 
It  is  all  very  well  to  say  that  art  must  conceal  art. 
We  ask  earnestly,  can  art  conceal  art?  Who  ever 
heard  Edward  Everett  in  one  of  his  orations,  without 
uneasily  feeling  that  it  was  a  splendid  unreality,  — 
only  the  finished  declamation  of  a  magnificent  com- 
position. This  was  all  well  enough  in  a  great 
oration,  such  as  that  on  Washington,  because  then 
one  expects  a  work  of  art,  and  is  satisfied  and  de- 
lighted if  the  art  be  consummate.  We  readily  yielded 
ourselves  to  the  spell,  and  were  deeply  moved,  as  we 
might  be  by  a  drama.  But  when  a  man  is  pleading 
for  the  life  of  his  client,  or  the  salvation  of  his  coun- 
try, and  still  more  when  as  an  ambassador  on  behalf 
of  Christ  he  prays  men  to  be  reconciled  to  God,  we 
feel  that  all  conscious  art  is  out  of  place. 

This  method,  then,  may  answer  very  well,  if  skilfully 
managed,  for  college  addresses,  for  public  lectures, 
for  extraordinary  orations,  for  any  speaking  in  which 
art  properly  forms  an  important  element.  It  is  to  be 
noticed,  moreover,  that  to  make  the  delivery  as  free 
and  unconstrained  as  is  possible  for  recitation,  a  man 
needs  —  unless  he  be  one  of  the  few  who  possess  a 
wonderful  memory  —  to  have  ample  time  for  be- 
coming thoroughly  familiar  with  the  discourse.  Now 
the  great  French  and  German  preachers  who  adopted 
this  method,  usually  preached  much  less  frequently 
than  an  American  pastor  does,  and  could  afford  to 
spend  all  necessary  time  in  making  perfectly  sure 
that  they  had  memorized  their  sermons.  Besides, 
the  preachers  at  Louis  XIV.'s  court  were  expected  to 


454  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

make  their  discourses  works  of  art,  so  that  artificiality 
was  not  objectionable ;  and  later  in  the  case  of  a  fer- 
vent evangelical  preacher,  like  Adolphe  Monod,  it  was 
seldom  a  real  recitation,  but  again  and  again  would 
become  free  speech  from  written  preparation.  Wher- 
ever preacher  and  hearers  are  satisfied  with  the 
habitual  practice  of  verbatim  recitation,  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  either  party  deeply  feels  the 
reality  of  preaching.  Sydney  Smith's  inquiry,  ''What 
can  be  more  ludicrous  than  an  orator  delivering  stale 
indignation,  and  fervor  of  a  week  old?  "  is  not  only  a 
keen  sarcasm,  but  contains  an  unanswerable  argu- 
ment.^ He  who  recites  must  either  be  devoid  of  in- 
dignation and  fervor,  or  else  the  delivery  of  these 
must  be  more  or  less  artificial ;  and  we  repeat  that 
conscious  art  cannot  be  tolerated  by  a  preacher,  nor 
manifest  art  by  a  congregation,  if  they  justly  appre- 
ciate and  deeply  feel  the  reality  of  preaching  and 
hearing.  Of  course  there  may  be  so  much  of 
genuine  earnestness  in  a  really  great  preacher,  as  in 
spite  of  the  inevitable  artificiality  of  manner  to  make 
a  deep  impression ;  yet  even  then,  the  mode  of  deliv- 
ery is  a  drawback,  a  serious  one,  and  most  serious 
precisely  v/here  the  discourse  ought  to  be  most 
impressive. 

(3)  But  may  not  a  man  write  out  his  sermon,  and 
then  speak  freely  from  this  written  preparation? 
Certainly.  Some  eminent  preachers  do  this,  and  with 
the  most  admirable  effect;  but  this  is  not  recitation. 
Some  of  these  men  tell  us  that  they  do  not  memorize 
the  discourse  at  all,  in  the  sense  of  making  a  distinct 
effort  to  remember  the  words,  and  yet  that  they 
reproduce  all  the  thoughts,  and  to  a  great  extent  in 

1  See  the  whole  passage  in  Ad  Clerum,  p.  38,  and  Pittenger,  p.  29. 
Hervey  (Christian  Rhetoric,  p.  555)  makes  as  good  a  reply  as  could 
be  made.    See  also  W.  M.  Taylor,  Ministry  of  the  Word,  p.  150. 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  455 

the  same  words,  that  they  had  written  down.  And  as 
already  remarked,  some  of  those  who  memorize,  learn 
by  degrees  to  break  away  from  recitation,  and  express 
substantially  the  same  thought  in  very  different  lan- 
guage. Now  this  is  a  wholly  distinct  thing  from 
recitation.  When  one  makes  no  effort  to  remember 
the  words,  and  recalls  them  at  all  only  by  their  asso- 
ciation with  the  ideas  he  is  seeking  to  express,  the 
process  lacks  the  essential  character  of  recitation. 
What  then  is  it?  The  answer  must  be  that  free 
speaking  from  written  preparation  is  only  one  of  the 
varieties  of  what  we  call  extemporaneous  speaking. 
It  may  at  first  appear  absurd  to  maintain  that  one 
may  write  out  a  sermon  in  full,  then  preach  extempo- 
raneously, and  yet  say  very  much  what  he  had 
written,  and  often  in  the  same  words.  Accordingly, 
Dr.  Skinner,  to  judge  from  a  single  expression  in 
passing,  recognizes  a  fourth  distinct  method  of  speak- 
ing, and  calls  it  a  reproduction  from  manuscript.-^ 
But  what  essential  difference  is  there  between  this 
free  speaking  from  complete  written  preparation, 
and  speaking  from  complete  unwritten  preparation? 
Robert  Hall  would  pursue  long  trains  of  thought 
without  writing,  and  reproduce  them  to  a  great  ex- 
tent in  the  same  words ;  Cicero  mentions  that  Hor- 
tensius  had  this  power;  in  fact,  many  a  man  of 
comparatively  humble  abilities  has  sometimes  done 
likewise.  If  he  were  making  an  effort  to  repeat  the 
words,  this  would  be  recitation,  though  without  writ- 
ing. If  he  makes  no  such  effort,  it  is  not  recitation, 
whether  the  preparation  were  written  or  unwritten. 
Now  such  speaking  from  unwritten  preparation  must, 
as  every  one  would  agree,  be  classed  as  extempora- 
neous preaching;  why  not  assign  to  the  same  class 

1  Discussions  in  Theology,  p.  144.    In  another  paper,  p.  185,  he 
speaks  of  this  as  the  best  form  of  recitation. 


456  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

all  free  speaking,  even  where  the  preparation  was  in 
writing?  Nor  does  this  leave  any  shadowy  boundary 
between  the  two  methods.  Though  they  may  some- 
times approach  very  closely,  though  a  practised 
speaker  may,  like  Brougham,  pass  freely  from  one 
to  the  other,  yet  they  are  separated  by  a  very  definite 
and  distinct  line.  When  one  endeavors  to  repeat  the 
words  used  in  preparation,  that  is  reciting,  whether 
he  wrote  them  down  or  did  not ;  and  when  there  is 
no  effort  to  repeat  the  words,  that  is  extemporizing, 
whether  the  preparation  was  partial  or  complete, 
purely  mental,  or  written  in  full.  Some  men  have 
such  good  memories  that  if  they  prepare  beforehand 
at  all  the  delivery  will  be  virtual  recitation.  It  is  said 
of  Rufus  Choate  that  he  could  write  out  a  speech,  rise 
from  his  desk  immediately,  leaving  it  there,  and  speak 
it  as  written.  Alexander  Hamilton  wrote  out  his 
greatest  speech,  then  tore  it  up  (in  order  to  be  free), 
and  next  day  spoke  it  with  overwhelming  power. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  many  persons  can  suc- 
cessfully manage  this  peculiar  variety  of  extempora- 
neous speaking.  It  would  seem  that  only  a  mind 
peculiarly  constituted  would  be  capable  of  freely  re- 
producing what  had  been  fully  written,  without  falling 
into  mere  recitation.  But  if  we  are  to  attain  just 
views  as  to  the  methods  of  preaching,  it  is  a  matter 
of  no  small  importance  to  have  it  understood  where 
the  practice  in  question  really  belongs. 

§  4.     EXTEMPORANEOUS   OR   FREE   SPEAKING. 

The  technical  meaning  of  this  expression  requires 
to  be  defined.  Primarily,  of  course,  it  denotes  speak- 
ing without  preparation,  simply  from  the  promptings 
of  the  moment.  The  colloquial  expression  for  this 
is  speaking  "off  hand,"  the   image  being  that  of 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  457 

shooting  without  a  rest;  and  the  Germans  have  a 
corresponding  phrase,  speaking  "from  the  stirrup," 
as  when  one  shoots  on  horseback,  without  dismount- 
ing. This  popular  phraseology  is  suggestive.  By  a 
natural  extension,  the  phrase  extemporaneous  speak- 
ing is  applied  to  cases  in  which  there  has  been  prep- 
aration of  the  thought,  however  thorough,  but  the 
language  is  left  to  be  suggested  at  the  moment. 
Still  further,  when  notes  are  made,  as  a  help  to 
preparation,  when  the  plan  of  the  discourse  is  drawn 
out  on  paper,  and  all  the  principal  points  are  stated 
or  suggested,  we  call  it  extemporaneous  speaking, 
because  all  this  is  regarded  only  as  a  means  of  arrang- 
ing and  recalling  the  thoughts,  and  the  language  is 
extemporized.  If  one  to  any  great  extent  relies  on 
these  notes  for  his  language^  then  it  is  so  far  a  reci- 
tation, where  the  notes  are  left  at  home,  and  read- 
ing, where  they  are  kept  before  him  in  the  pulpit ; 
as  a  general  thing,  however,  this  is  not  true,  and 
preaching  from  notes  is  fairly  called  extemporaneous. 
And  one  step  further  we  go,  when,  as  already  stated, 
we  insist  that  free  speaking,  after  the  discourse  has 
been  written  /«/?/// as  preparation,  but  without  any 
effort  to  repeat  the  language  of  the  manuscript,  shall 
be  called  extemporaneous  speaking.  We  think  it 
has  been  satisfactorily  shown  that  this  last  extension 
of  the  phrase  is  proper  and  necessary.  And  if  so, 
then  many  eminent  men,  for  example,  Whitefield, 
who  have  usually  been  spoken  of  as  reciting,  were 
really,  in  part  or  in  whole,  extemporaneous  preachers ; 
and  Whitefield  in  later  life  seldom  wrote  at  all.^ 

No  intelligent  man  would  now  propose  that 
preachers  should  habitually  speak  extempore,  as 
regards  the  matter.  It  is  true  that  occasions  not 
unfrequently  arise  which  make  it  important  that  they 

1  Ad  Clerum,  pp.  44,  45. 


4S8  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

should  be  able  to  speak  without  any  special  imme- 
diate preparation;  but  this  will  be  done  most  fitly 
and  effectively  by  those  whose  habit  it  is  to  do  other- 
wise. In  truth,  the  fanatical  or  slothful  men  who 
say  that  they  never  make  any  preparation,  deceive 
themselves.  Most  of  what  they  say  has  been  pre- 
pared by  saying  it  many  times  before,  and  in  many 
cases  its  substance  was  originally  borrowed,  whether 
from  books,  or  from  the  preaching  of  others  and  from 
conversation.  Except  as  to  single  thoughts  sug- 
gested at  the  moment,  their  minds  are  led  by  asso- 
ciation of  ideas,  even  though  it  be  unconsciously, 
into  what  they  have  previously  worked  out.  Really 
to  extemporize  the  matter  of  preaching  is  as  im- 
practicable as  it  is  improper.  And  it  is  utterly 
unfair  to  represent  the  advocates  of  extemporane- 
ous preaching  as  meaning  that  men  shall  preach 
without  preparation. 

In  presenting  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of 
this  method,  there  must  be  some  repetition  of  ideas 
already  advanced.  This  is  obviously  necessary  to 
completeness,  and  such  matters  will  now  be  regarded 
from  a  different  point  of  view. 

(i)  Consider  then,  the  advantages. 

{ci)  As  regards  preparation,  this  method  accus- 
toms one  to  think  more  rapidly,  and  with  less 
dependence  on  external  helps,  than  if  he  habitually 
wrote  in  full. 

(J))  It  also  enables  a  man  to  spend  his  strength 
chiefly  upon  the  more  difficult  or  more  important 
parts  of  the  subject.  When  pressed  for  time,  as 
must  so  often  be  the  case  with  a  pastor,  he  can  get 
more  thought  into  the  sermon  J:han  if  all  the  time 
must  be  spent  in  hurriedly  writing  down  what  comes 
uppermost.  The  choice  is  in  such  cases  between 
extemporizing  the  language  where  the  thought  has 


PREPARATION   AND    DELIVERY.  459 

been  elaborated,  and  taking  the  thought  extempore 
in  order  to  prepare  the  language.  This  really  im- 
portant consideration  has  been  forcibly  stated  by 
Wayland:  "A  large  proportion  of  our  written  dis- 
courses is  prepared  in  a  driving  hurry,  late  on  Satur- 
day night,  and  sometimes  between  the  services  on 
the  Sabbath;  and  the  thoughts  are  huddled  together 
with  little  arrangement,  and  less  meditation.  ...  If 
the  same  time  had  been  spent  in  earnest  thought, 
would  not  the  discourse  have  been  more  carefully 
prepared  than  by  the  simple  process  of  writing?  "^ 

(c)  Again,  this  method  saves  time  for  general 
improvement  and  for  other  pastoral  work.  Not 
at  first,  to  be  sure,  for  the  inexperienced  preacher 
often  needs  more  time  to  make  thorough  prepara- 
tion for  preaching  extempore  than  he  would  use  in 
writing;  but  after  he  has  gained  facility  and  self- 
reliance,  much  time  may  be  saved.  Beecher  and 
Spurgeon  could  never  have  done  as  much  other  work 
as  they  did,  and  at  the  same  time  have  preached  so 
well,  if  they  had  taken  time  to  write  out  their  ser- 
mons fully  beforehand. 

(d)  In  the  act  of  delivery,  the  extemporaneous 
speaker  has  immense  advantages.  With  far  greater 
ease  and  effectiveness  than  if  reading  or  reciting,  he 
can  turn  to  account  ideas  which  occur  at  the  time. 
Southey  says:  "The  salient  points  of  Whitefield's 
oratory  were  not  prepared  passages;  they  were  bursts 
of  passion,  like  the  jets  of  a  geyser  when  the  spring 
is  in  full  play."  ^  Any  man  who  possesses,  even  in 
an  humble  degree,  the  fervid  oratorical  nature,  will 
find  that  after  careful  preparation,  some  of  the 
noblest  and  most  inspiring  thoughts  he  ever  gains 
will  come  while  he  is  engaged  in  speaking.     If,  full 

1  Ministry  of  the  Gospel,  p.  120. 
*  Quoted  by  Skinner,  p.  146. 


460  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

of  his  theme  and  impressed  with  its  importance,  he 
presently  secures  the  interested  and  sympathizing 
attention  of  even  a  few  good  listeners,  and  the  fire 
of  his  eyes  comes  reflected  back  from  theirs,  till 
electric  flashes  pass  to  and  fro  between  them,  and 
his  very  soul  glows  and  blazes  and  flames,  —  he 
cannot  fail  sometimes  to  strike  out  thoughts  more 
splendid  and  more  precious  than  ever  visit  his  mind 
in  solitary  musing.  "  If  the  audience  be  antagonis- 
tic rather  than  sympathetic,  the  orator  is  put  upon 
his  mettle  —  chooses  his  ground,  watches  his  oppor- 
tunity, closes  in  and  triumphs."  ^ 

{e)  And,  as  we  have  before  seen,  there  is  a  more 
important  gain  than  the  new  thoughts  elicited.  The 
whole  mass  of  prepared  material  becomes  brightened, 
warmed,  sometimes  transfigured,  by  this  inspiration 
of  delivery.  The  preacher's  language  rises,  with- 
out conscious  effort,  to  suit  the  heightened  grandeur 
and  beauty  of  his  conceptions ;  and,  as  Everett  has 
expressed  it  in  speaking  of  Webster,  "the  discourse 
instinctively  transposes  itself  into  a  higher  key." 
This  exaltation  of  soul,  rising  at  times  to  rapture, 
can  never  be  fitly  described;  but  the  speaker  who 
does  not  in  some  measure  know  what  it  means,  was 
not  born  to  be  a  speaker.  And  great  stress  should 
be  laid  upon  the  fact  that  besides  the  thoughts  which 
then  first  occur  to  the  mind,  — a  matter  constantly 
remarked, — ^  there  is  this  effect  of  far  greater  import- 
ance produced  by  delivery,  in  changing  the  form  and 
color,  and  incalculably  augmenting  the  power  of  the 
thoughts  previously  prepared. 

(/)  Moreover,  the  preacher  can  watch  the  effect 
as  he  proceeds,  and  purposely  alter  the  forms  of  ex- 
pression, as  well  as  the  manner  of  delivery,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  feeling,  and  that  of  the  audience. 
1  W.  M.  Taylor.  —  Review  article. 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  461 

Especially  in  the  hortatory  parts  of  a  sermon,  which 
are  often  the  most  important  parts,  will  this  adapta- 
tion be  desirable.  If  preacher  and  hearers  have 
been  wrought  up  to  intense  excitement,  then  it  will 
be  proper  to  use  strong  figures,  impassioned  exclama- 
tions, and  in  general  to  speak  the  language  of  pas- 
sion. Nothing  else  would  then  be  natural,  and  if 
in  such  a  case  one's  language  be  unfigurative  and 
quiet,  it  is  felt  by  the  disappointed  hearers  to  be  flat 
and  tame,  and  no  vehemence  of  mere  delivery  can 
supply  the  deficiency.  Still  worse  is  the  effect  if 
feeling  has  not  risen  high,  and  the  preacher  comes 
to  language  previously  prepared  which  is  figurative 
and  passionate.  If  now  his  manner  accords,  as  it 
ought  always  to  do,  with  the  actual  feeling  of  him- 
self and  his  hearers,  there  will  be  a  painful  incon- 
gruity between  the  delivery  and  the  style;  if  he 
strives  to  rise  to  his  prepared  language,  any  partial 
success  in  so  doing  will  but  put  him  out  of  harmony 
with  the  feelings  of  the  audience.  Surely  no  one 
can  question  that  this  consideration  is  one  of  im- 
mense importance.  What  preacher  has  not  often 
found  in  repeating  a  sermon  to  another  audience, 
that  there  was  a  difference,  and  sometimes  a  very 
great  difference,  in  the  feeling  with  which  he  and 
his  hearers  approached  the  closing  exhortation }  A 
few  sentences  then,  which  in  conception,  style,  and 
delivery  strike  precisely  the  right  key,  will  wonder- 
fully enhance  the  effect  of  the  whole  discourse.^ 
What  that  right  key  will  be,  no  man  of  oratorical 
nature  can  always  foretell.  Here,  then,  the  reader 
or  reciter  must  inevitably  fail,  while  the  cultivated 

1  Matthews  (Oratory  and  Orators,  p.  29)  tells  of  a  preacher  who 
electrified  his  people  by  an  extempore  discourse  during  a  thunder- 
storm ;  and  on  being  asked  to  print  it,  replied  that  he  would  if  the/ 
would  print  the  thunderstorm  along  with  it ! 


462  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

extemporaneous  speaker  easily  and  naturally  rises  or 
falls  to  suit  the  feeling  of  the  moment.  But  some 
one  might  reply,  *'  I  do  not  aim  at  high  oratorical 
effects.  I  am  content  with  more  modest  efforts." 
That  of  which  we  speak  is  constantly  practised  by 
some  humble  men  in  prayer-meeting  addresses.  It 
is  the  simple  rhetoric  of  nature. 

(g)  And  here  let  it  be  asked,  What  of  dependence 
upon  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  prayer  for  his  help  in 
preaching.?  How  can  a  man  pray  that  God  will 
guide  him  through  a  forest,  when  he  has  already 
blazed  the  entire  path,  and  committed  himself  to 
follow  it .?  Of  course  one  should  seek  help  in  pre- 
paring his  discourse,  and  if  he  reads,  should  pray 
that  he  might  be  enabled  to  feel  aright  in  reading. 
But  how  much  more  natural  is  such  prayer,  how 
much  more  real  the  dependence  upon  divine  assist- 
ance, how  much  freer  the  opening  for  the  Spirit 
really  to  help,  if  the  sermon  is  not  already  cast  in 
moulds,  but  the  material  which  has  been  gathered 
is  now  molten  in  the  mind,  and  the  ultimate  process 
remains  to  be  performed. 

(k)  As  to  the  delivery  itself,  it  is  only  in  extem- 
poraneous speaking,  of  one  or  another  variety,  that 
this  can  ever  be  perfectly  natural,  and  achieve  the 
highest  effect.  The  ideal  of  speaking,  it  has  been 
justly  said,  cannot  be  reached  in  any  other  way. 
Only  thus  will  the  voice,  the  action,  the  eye,  be 
just  what  nature  dictates,  and  attain  their  full  power. 
And  while  painstaking  culture  vainly  strives  to  read 
or  recite  precisely  like  speaking,  the  extemporaneous 
speaker  may  with  comparative  ease  rise  to  the  best 
delivery  of  which  he  is  capable.  In  this  way,  too, 
as  before  remarked,  we  most  readily  gain  the  sym- 
pathy of  our  hearers ;  they  are  sympathizing  with  a 
man,   not   a   composition,  —  a  man   all   alive   with 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  4^3 

thoughts  he  is  now  thinking,  and  fervors  he  is  now 
feeling,  and  not  simply  reviving,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  thought  and  feeling  of  some  former  time.  If 
one  preaches  an  unwritten  sermon  many  times  till 
it  becomes  a  mere  recitation,  then  it  loses  power. 
If  he  cannot  somehow  interest  his  mind  in  the  sub- 
ject, so  as  to  be  expressing  living  thought,  he  should 
lay  the  sermon  aside  and  not  use  it  for  a  long  time. 

(j)  It  is  also  an  advantage  of  this  method  that  it 
gives  facility  in  speaking  without  immediate  prep- 
aration. The  preacher  who  cannot  do  this  upon 
occasion  misses  many  opportunities  of  usefulness, 
and  loses  influence  with  the  people  by  an  incapacity 
which  they  consider  a  reproach. 

(J)  This  leads  to  what  is  really  among  the  most 
important  advantages  of  extemporaneous  preaching. 
With  the  masses  of  the  people,  it  is  the  popular 
method.  Where  principle  is  involved,  one  ought  to 
withstand  the  notions  of  the  people;  but  when  it  is 
a  mere  question  of  expediency,  -  -  and  the  present 
question  is  nothing  more,  — then  a  general  and  very 
decided  popular  preference  is  an  exceedingly  impor- 
tant consideration.  It  does  not  mend  the  matter  to 
sneer  at  the  folly  of  the  masses,  in  so  often  prefer- 
ring ignorant  preachers  who  thoroughly  sympathize 
with  them,  and  speak  in  the  way  they  like.  There 
is  real  and  grave  danger  that  we  shall  "  educate  away 
from  the  people."  Here,  now,  is  one  respect  in 
which  educated  preachers  have  it  in  their  power  to 
suit  the  popular  taste,  and  gain  the  popular  sym- 
pathy. If  some  obstacles  to  such  sympathy  can  be 
but  partially  removed,  there  need  be  no  difficulty 
with  this  obstacle.  Those  denominations,  in  par- 
ticular, whose  strength  has  always  been  with  the 
masses,  ought  to  make  almost  everything  bend  to 
retain  their  hold  upon  the  people.     No  doubt  some 


464  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

congregations  have  been  educated  into  a  toleration 
of  reading,  but  it  is  almost  always  an  unwilling 
acquiescence,  or  a  high  regard  for  some  man's 
preaching  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  reads.  No 
doubt  there  are  half -educated  and  fastidious  people 
who  greatly  prefer  reading  or  recitation.  But  the 
thoroughly  educated  fully  agree  with  the  masses  as 
to  what  is  generally  the  best  method.  And  instead 
of  striving  to  educate  the  people  into  enduring  what 
they  will  never  like,  and  what  can  never  so  deeply 
move  them,  let  the  preacher  educate  himself  into 
preaching  in  such  a  way  that  he  can  reach  and  hold 
the  masses,  and  leave  the  fastidious  few  to  think 
what  they  please. 

(2)  But  we  must  turn  to  the  disadvantages  of  ex- 
temporaneous speaking,  some  of  which  require  not 
only  careful  consideration  in  argument,  but  very 
watchful  attention  in  practice.  Some  of  these  do 
not  apply,  so  far  as  preparation  is  concerned,  to  free 
speaking  after  writing  in  full ;  but  they  may  as  well 
be  discussed  together. 

(a)  Perhaps  the  gravest  of  them  all  consists  in 
the  tendency  to  neglect  of  preparation,  after  one 
has  gained  facility  in  unaided  thinking  and  extem- 
porized expression.  Men  are  prone  to  abuse  all  their 
privileges ;  but  it  is  a  superficial  philosophy  which 
thence  concludes  that  privileges  should  be  avoided. 
And  if  many  extemporizers  grow  indolent,  and  rely 
too  much  upon  the  suggestions  of  the  moment,  at 
least  they  must  at  the  moment  have  some  mental 
activity;  whereas  the  same  indolent  men,  if  accus- 
tomed to  read  or  recite,  would  repeat  sermons  long 
ago  prepared,  with  their  minds  no  longer  active,  nor 
their  hearts  truly  warm.  This  tendency  to  neglect 
of  preparation  is  real  and  powerful,  but  it  may  be 
resisted,  and  many  extemporizers  do  resist  it,  con- 


PREPARATION    AND    DELIVERY.  4^5 

tinuing  through  life  to  prepare  their  sermons  with 
care;  and  as  just  intimated,  it  is  only  many  readers, 
and  by  no  means  all,  that  do  likewise. 

{b)  There  is  difficulty  in  fixing  the  mind  upon  the 
work  of  preparation  without  writing  in  full.  This 
may  be  removed  by  practice.  At  the  outset,  it  can 
be  overcome  either  by  making  copious  notes,  or  by 
speaking  the  subject  over  in  private. 

(c)  Still  another,  and  a  serious  disadvantage  of  this 
method,  is  in  its  tendency  to  prevent  one's  forming 
the  habit  of  writing.  As  fluency  increases,  the  con- 
trast between  winged,  glorious  speech,  and  slow, 
toilsome  writing,  becomes  to  many  men  too  great 
for  their  patience,  and  there  grows  upon  them  what 
some  one  felicitously  calls  a  calamophobia,  a  dread 
of  the  pen.  And  not  only  does  this  cut  them  off 
from  many  important  means  of  usefulness,  —  espe- 
cially in  our  day,  the  era  of  the  printing-press,  — 
but  it  reacts  disastrously  upon  their  power  of  speak- 
ing. Both  the  beginner  in  oratory  and  the  experienced^ 
ready  speaker^  must  constrain  themselves  to  write , 
much  a7id  carefully.  Not,  indeed,  to  write  out  what 
they  are  about  to  speak,  unless  they  belong  to  the 
class  who  can  speak  freely  after  fully  written  prep- 
aration, but  to  write  for  other  purposes,  —  essays 
and  exegeses,  by  way  of  thoroughly  studying  a  pas- 
sage or  subject,  articles  for  publication,  sermons  after 
preaching  them,  and  the  like.  Writing  promotes 
accuracy  of  thought  as  well  as  exactness  of  statement ; 
the  thought  becomes  objective,  and  can  thus  be  more 
carefully  scrutinized.  Thus  our  habits  of  writing 
and  of  speaking  will  maintain  an  equilibrium  in  our 
methods  of  thinking  and  style  of  expression,  while 
yet  each  is  practised  according  to  its  own  essential 
and  distinctive  character. 

(^)  If  the  sermon  is  to  be  used  again,  and  has  not 
30 


466  THE   THREE   METHODS    OF 

been  written  out  in  full,  it  requires  some  renewed 
preparation.  But  this,  too,  is  rather  a  gain  than  a 
loss ;  for  thus  the  discourse  can  be  more  easily  and 
exactly  adapted  to  the  new  circumstances.  A  ser- 
mon precisely  suited  to  one  audience  and  occasion 
would  usually  be,  at  least  in  many  of  its  details, 
quite  unsuited  to  any  other;  and  it  is  only  the 
extemporaneous  speaker  that  can  readily  make  the 
requisite  changes,  which  are  often  slight  and  deli- 
cate, but  surpassingly  important  to  the  practical 
result.  Besides,  while  the  times  change,  we  are 
changing  in  them.  A  sermon  prepared  years  ago 
will  often  need  no  little  modification  in  order  to 
suit  the  altered  opinions,  tastes,  and  feelings  of  the 
preacher  himself.  And  then  the  necessity  for  re- 
working the  preparation  makes  it  all  fresh  to  the 
preacher's  mind,  and  warm  again  to  his  heart.  So 
the  extemporaneous  method  does  make  the  repeated 
use  of  the  same  sermon  more  laborious,  but  it  also 
serves  to  make  it  much  more  effective. 

(e)  The  extemporizer  cannot  ^uoU  so  largely  as 
the  reader,  from  Scripture,  or  from  the  writings  of 
others.  But  he  is  likely  to  quote  only  what  is  really 
important  to  the  subject,  and  thus  easily  remem- 
bered. Facility  of  quotation  is  not  an  unmitigated 
blessing.  Those  who  read  often  quote  long  passages 
which  do  not  increase,  which  sometimes  positively 
diminish,  the  interest  and  impressiveness  of  the 
sermon.  What  fits  exactly,  we  repeat,  can  be  easily 
remembered.  Besides,  it  is  often  much  better  to 
borrow  (with  some  sort  of  acknowledgment)  the 
ideas  of  others,  but  state  them  in  our  own  language. 
People  are  almost  always  more  interested  in  this 
than  in  extended  quotations.  Where  the  quotation 
of  the  language  itself  is  really  important,  and  the 
passage  long,  one  may  read 'it  from  his  Bible,  or  if 


PREPARATION   AND    DELIVERY.  4^7 

from  some  other  source,  may  write  it  off  and  read 
it,  expressly  as  an  important  quotation.  Perhaps  a 
man  who  commonly  speaks  in  an  easy  and  familiar 
manner  might  carry  with  him  the  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
Paradise  Lost,  or  a  volume  of  Spurgeon,  and  just 
take  it  up  as  the  lawyers  do,  and  read  an  extract. 
Something  like  this  is  frequently  done  in  controver- 
sial sermons  and  public  discussions. 

(/)  The  style  of  an  extemporaneous  sermon  is  apt 
to  be  less  condensed  and  less  finished,  than  if  it  were 
written  out  and  read  or  recited.  But  this  is  not 
necessarily  a  fault.  The  style  may  be  all  the  better 
adapted  to  speaking,  as  distinguished  from  the  essay- 
style.  That  there  is  a  real  and  broad  difference 
between  these,  has  been  strongly  asserted  by  such 
masters  of  effective  speaking  as  Fox  and  Pitt  and 
Brougham.  Copiousness,  amplification,  even  the  fre- 
quent repetition  of  a  thought  under  new  forms  or 
with  other  illustrations,  are  often  absolutely  neces- 
sary in  addressing  a  popular  audience,  even  if  it  be 
as  cultivated  as  the  House  of  Commons.  Paragraphs 
of  this  sort  may  be  preceded  or  followed  by  terse, 
pithy  statements,  such  as  those  which  occur  so  strik- 
ingly in  the  Epistle  of  James.  Now  we  learn  the 
writing  style  by  writing,  and  we  must  form  the 
speaking  style  in  the  process  of  actual  speaking.  ^ 
In  the  case  of  definitions,  or  other  brief  passages  in 
which  the  language  becomes  especially  important, 
one  may  fix  beforehand,  whether  with  or  without 
writing,  the  precise  terms  to  be  employed.  While, 
however,  a  condensed  and  highly  finished  style  is 
not  generally  to  be  sought  after  in  speaking  which 
aims  to  make  any  practical  impression,  there  is 
danger  of  a  wearisome  repetition,  of  "  linked  dulness 
long  drawn  out,"  especially  of  what  some  one  calls 

I  Comp.  Part  III.  chap.  i.  §  2. 


468  THE   THREE   METHODS    OF 

"conclusions  which  never  conclude."  This  danger 
can  be  obviated  by  care  in  preparation  and  in  speak- 
ing, and  by  the  constant  practice  of  careful  writing 
for  other  purposes. 

{g)  A  similar  and  more  serious  disadvantage  is 
the  danger  of  making  blunders  in  statement.  In  the 
ardor  of  the  moment  the  extemporaneous  speaker  is 
likely  to  say  some  things  that  are  irrelevant,  ill- 
considered,  improper,  and  sometimes,  alas !  even 
untrue.  Some  men  more  than  others  run  this  risk, 
but  all  are  more  or  less  liable  to  the  danger.  Some 
hints  may  be  given  as  safeguards:  Make  thorough 
preparation,  and  thus  greatly  diminish  the  danger. 
Keep  a  cool  head,  no  matter  how  warm  the  heart 
becomes,  while  preaching.  If  the  slip  is  serious, 
correct  it  on  the  spot  and  go  on ;  if  very  serious,  and 
not  observed  at  the  time,  correct  it  on  another  occa- 
sion. But  for  the  most  part  leave  these  mistakes 
alone.  If  you  have  real  merits,  and  enjoy  the  con- 
fidence of  the  people,  it  will  be  one  of  your  most 
blessed  privileges  to  live  down  many  blunders. 

{h)  The  success  of  an  extemporaneous  sermon  is 
largely  dependent  upon  the  preacher's  feelings  at 
the  time  of  delivery,  and  upon  the  circumstances; 
so  that  he  is  liable  to  decided  failure.  It  is  by 
this,  more  than  anything  else,  that  many  men  are 
restrained  from  attempting  to  extemporize.  And 
yet  this  is  a  condition  by  which  preachers  will  much 
oftener-gain  than  lose.  Many  of  the  greatest  ora- 
tors have  suffered  from  a  nervous  timidity  in  begin- 
ning their  speeches  and  sermons.  E.  P.  Hood^ 
speaks  in  a  striking  way  of  "  the  power  of  nervous- 
ness as  an  element  in  successful  oratory ;  that  throb- 
bing, thrilling  nervousness  of  emotion  united  to  the 
perfect  command  over  the  subject,  and  interest  in 

1  Vocation  of  the  Preacher,  p.  245. 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  469 

it. "  Macaulay  once  wrote  of  one  whom  he  describes 
as  "the  most  ready  and  fluent  debater  almost  ever 
known,"  as  follows:  "Tierney  used  to  say  that  he 
never  rose  in  the  House  without  feeling  his  knees 
tremble  under  him;  and  I  am  sure  that  no  man 
who  has  not  some  of  that  feeling  will  ever  succeed 
there."  ^  A  man  not  capable  of  failing,  can  never  be 
eloquent.  If  he  has  not  so  excitable  a  nature,  so 
sensitive  a  sympathy  with  his  surroundings,  as  to  be 
greatly  depressed  by  very  unfavorable  circumstances, 
then  the  most  favorable  conditions  will  not  greatly 
exalt  and  inspire  him.  In  like  manner  a  method  of 
preaching  which  renders  failure  impossible,  also  ren- 
ders the  greatest  impressiveness  impossible.  Pre- 
served from  falling  below  a  certain  level,  the  preacher 
will  also  be  hindered  from  soaring  as  high  above  it 
as  would  otherwise  be  in  his  power.  Nay,  let  a 
man  commit  himself  to  the  occasion  and  the  subject, 
—  let  him  take  heart  and  strike  out  boldly,  sink  or 
swim. 

(i)  The  reaction  and  nervous  depression  follow- 
ing extemporaneous  preaching  are  apt  to  be  greater 
than  in  the  other  cases.  This  is  perhaps  inevitable, 
but  is  compensated  for  by  the  greater  impressiveness 
and  effect  of  free  delivery. 

Let  it  now  be  carefully  observed  that  all  the  dis- 
advantages of  extemporaneous  speaking  are  such  as 
can  be  completely  obviated  by  resolute  and  judi- 
cious effort,  while  reading  and  recitation  have  many 
inherent  disadvantages,  which  may,  of  course,  be 
more  or  less  diminished,  but  can  never  be  removed. 
The  born  speaker  will  be  able  to  overcome  the  diffi- 
culties of  extemporaneous  speaking,  and  will  find 
here,  and  here  alone,  free  play  for  his  powers.  We 
are  not  referring  merely  to  the  few  great  orators, 

1  Life,  by  Trevelyan,  Vol.  I.  pp.  188,  220. 


470  THE   THREE   METHODS   OF 

but  to  all  who  have  really  a  native  talent  for  speak- 
ing, including  some  in  whom  this  long  remains 
undeveloped,  through  lack  of  exercise  or  because  of 
wrong  methods.  Some  men,  not  born  speakers,  but 
anxious  to  do  good,  and  zealous  pastors,  may  be  able 
to  write  and  read  tolerably  instructive  and  accept- 
able discourses,  while  they  could  never  preach  ex- 
temporaneously. But  certainly  what  is  best  for 
them  is  not  thereby  shown  to  be  best  in  general. 
Methods  of  speaking  ought  to  be  chosen  according 
to  the  wants  and  the  powers  of  those  who  have  some 
gift  as  speakers.  Very  few,  if  any  others,  ought  to 
make  speaking  their  business. 

§  5.    GENERAL  AND   SPECIAL  PREPARATION  FOR 
FREE  DELIVERY   IN  PREACHING. 

The  preacher  should  be  careful  of  his  health,  not 
only  on  other  accounts,  but  because  speaking,  real 
speaking,  demands  a  high  degree  of  nervous  energy 
and  power  of  endurance.  To  this  end  he  should  be 
sure  to  get  enough  sleep,  in  general,  and  particu- 
larly on  Saturday  night.  Many  a  noble  sermon  is 
spoiled  by  the  fact  that  the  preacher  begins  to  flag 
physically  toward  the  close,  and  can  neither  feel 
high-wrought  emotion,  nor  speak  with  passion  and 
power. 

He  should  cultivate  accuracy  and  rapidity  of  think- 
ing, and  should  discipline  himself  to  pursue  trains 
of  thought  without  interruption,  and  as  far  as  pos- 
sible without  dependence  on  outward  helps.  He 
must  get  his  knowledge  of  Scripture,  and  all  his 
knowledge  (as  far  as  may  be)  at  his  tongue's  end. 
The  habit  of  keeping  one's  know^ledge  fit  for  service, 
so  that  he  can  at  once  state  what  he  knows  or  thinks 
on  subjects  he  has  studied,  will  preserve  him  from 


PREPARATION   AND    DELIVERY.  471 

the  clanger  of  breaking  down,  and  will  enable  him  to 
prepare  sermons  with  equal  thoroughness  in  a  shorter 
time.  The  preacher  will  accordingly  find  it  advan- 
tageous to  think  out  all  the  leading  doctrinal  truths, 
so  as  to  have  definite  (not  necessarily  infallible!) 
views  of  each,  and  to  be  able  to  state  them  whenever 
needed,  with  some  principal  proof-passages  learned 
by  heart  as  a  permanent  possession.  Professor  Park 
makes  the  excellent  suggestion  in  regard  to  remem- 
bering what  we  learn,  that  we  should  at  the  time 
intend  to  remember  it  permanently  —  not  merely  for 
this  particular  sermon  or  occasion. 

Great  attention  ought  to  be  given  to  the  use 
of  language  in  ordinary  writing  and  conversation. 
There  should  be  the  habit  of  seeking  the  most  exact 
terms,  and  of  constructing  sentences  which  shall  be 
grammatical,  and  yet  simple  and  easy.  The  most 
familiar  conversation  should  not  degenerate  into 
slang,  nor  the  most  dignified  into  pedantry.  There 
should  be  no  such  marked  difference  as  is  often  seen 
between  a  man's  style  in  public  speaking,  and  in 
conversation.  These  should  not  be  different  instru- 
ments, but  simply  a  higher  or  lower  range  on  the 
same  instrument.  Children  are  taught  that  to  make 
sure  of  being  polite  when  visiting,  they  must  be 
polite  every  day  at  home.  So  Coquerel  says,  "In 
order  to  speak  well  sometimes,  it  is  necessary  to 
speak  well  always."  Certainly  this  is  necessary  in 
order  that  one  may  feel  sure  of  being  able  to  speak 
well  at  any  time.  And  the  man  who  forms  such 
habits  need  not  be  uneasy,  for  his  use  of  language 
can  never  be  excessively  bad. 

A  young  preacher  who  wishes  to  extemporize 
ought  to  begin  it  at  once.     Mr.   Zincke's  method,^ 

1  The  Duty  and  the  Discipline  of  Extemporary  Preaching,  by 
F.  B.  Zincke. 


472  THE  THREE   METHODS    OF 

of  writing  in  full  and  practising  a  laborious  memo- 
rizing of  the  matter  which  makes  the  delivery  almost 
a  recitation,  may  do  very  well  for  one  who  has  been 
reading  till  middle  age,  and  then  sets  himself  to 
speak  extempore,  but  it  is  by  no  means  best  for  the 
young.  Probably  the  greatest  and  most  common  of 
blunders  about  this  whole  matter  lies  just  here. 
Authors,  professors,  pastors,  often  say  to  the  young 
minister:  "Certainly,  extemporaneous  preaching  is 
best,  if  properly  practised,  and  I  hope  you  will  learn 
to  extemporize.  But  do  not  think  of  attempting  it  at 
first.     Begin  by  reading,  — or  preaching  memoritery 

—  and  gradually  use  yourself  to  extemporizing." 
So  he  begins,  forms  all  his  habits  of  thinking,  of 
constructing  discourse,  his  mastery  of  expression, 
style,  delivery,  everything,  to  suit  the  other  method, 

—  and  a  speaker's  habits  for  life  are  very  soon 
formed,  —  and  after  a  few  years,  occasionally  attempts 
to  preach  in  a  way  for  which  he  has  not  trained  him- 
self, and  which  is  in  many  respects  quite  different. 
Who  can  wonder  that  he  fails,  grows  discouraged, 
and  falls  back  upon  the  continued  practice  of  the 
other  method,  as  somehow  the  best  for  him  ?  Nay, 
let  a  man  begin  at  once  what  he  intends  to  make  the 
habit  of  his  life. 

Lord  Brougham  insists  that  one  must  first  learn  to 
speak  easily  and  fluently,  sacrificing  everything  to 
this  as  the  prime  requisite;  and  afterwards  learn 
to  "  convert  this  kind  of  easy  speaking  into  chaste 
eloquence."  In  saying  this,  he  supposes  himself  to 
"  differ  from  all  other  doctors  of  rhetoric."  And  in 
fact  the  advice  usually  given  follows  the  saying  of 
Quintilian :  "  It  is  not  by  writing  fast  that  we  come 
to  write  well,  but  by  writing  well  that  we  learn  to 
write  fast."  Probably  different  classes  of  minds  are 
thought  of  in  the  two  cases.     If  a  young  man  finds 


PREPARATION   AND    DELIVERY.  473 

himself  not  fluent,  but  slow  and  hesitating  in  speech, 
then  let  him  follow  Brougham's  advice,  and  learn,  at  all 
hazards,  to  speak  with  ease,  though  he  should  at  first 
violate  all  the  rules  of  rhetoric  and  even  of  grammar. 
But  if,  as  is  more  commonly  the  case,  he  is  ready  and 
fluent,  then  he  must  rigorously  discipline  himself  to 
precision  of  expression.  "  The  old  and  finished 
speaker  always  uses  fewer  and  choicer  words  than 
the  young  orator."  ^  Command  of  language  does  not 
consist  in  what  Huet  disrespectfully  called  tifie  fluxe 
de  botiche,  in  a  mere  gush  of  words,  but  in  the  ability 
to  bring  forward  precisely  the  right  word  at  the 
moment  it  is  wanted. 

The  extemporaneous  preacher  must  carefully 
arrange  his  sermon,  according  to  the  natural  order 
of  the  thoughts,  and  then  he  will  have  no  difficulty 
in  remembering.  The  sermon  must  not  wander  at 
will  over  the  subject,  but  have  its  distinct  and  well- 
marked  points,  and  advance  steadily  from  one  to 
another.  In  both  these  respects,  what  helps  him  will 
also  greatly  help  the  hearer.  Whether  it  has  any 
formal  division  or  not,  a  popular  address  should 
always  have  points.  And  it  is  one  advantage  of  ex- 
temporaneous speaking,  that  it  compels  to  such  an 
arrangement.  If  now  one  has  stretching  before  him 
a  well-defined  track  of  thought,  divided  by  natural 
landmarks  into  distinct  sections,  he  can  diverge  from 
it  upon  occasion  and  return  without  difficulty.^ 

If  a  preacher  makes  notes  in  preparing,  as  it  is 
usually  best  to  do,  he  ought,  in  general,  not  to  carry 
them  into  the  pulpit.  Particular  subjects  or  modes  of 
treatment  will  sometimes  make  this  desirable.     Prob- 

1  Shedd,  p.  238. 

2  "  My  earnest  advice  to  you  is  that  you  never  make  the  attempt 
to  extemporize  without  being  sure  of  your  matter.  Of  all  the  defects 
of  utterance  I  have  ever  known  the  most  serious  is  having  nothing 
to  utter.*'    Alexander,  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  p.  142. 


474  THE  THREE   METHODS   OF 

ably  for  most  men,  especially  in  their  early  years  of 
work,  the  better  plan  is  to  make  copious  notes  or 
even  a  full  sketch.  In  some  cases  considerable  por- 
tions may  be  written  out  and  read  or  recited,  until 
confidence  be  gradually  acquired  to  cut  loose  alto- 
gether from  the  manuscript.  Some  find  it  desirable 
to  take  the  sketch  or  notes  into  the  pulpit —  they  feel 
safer,  though  they  do  not  read  closely,  or  even  at  all. 
But  in  general,  one  should  take  time  enough  before- 
hand to  get  the  matter  of  the  sermon  in  solution  in 
his  mind,  so  that  it  can  flow  freely;  or, to  resume  the 
other  figure,  to  get  the  track  he  is  to  follow  so  clear 
to  his  mental  vision,  that  he  can  flash  a  single  glance 
from  beginning  to  end  of  it.  This  is  not  memorizing 
words,  and  with  a  little  practice  it  can  be  quickly 
done.  In  other  respects,  too,  great  benefit  will  be 
derived  from  this  necessity  of  going  thoroughly  over 
the  prepared  matter  shortly  before  preaching,  for  thus 
the  mind  and  heart  become  kindled,  and  brought  into 
sympathy  with  the  particular  subject  to  be  treated. 
Sometimes  the  very  words  ought  to  be  fixed  before- 
hand. This  applies  generally  to  definitions,  frequently 
to  transitions,  and  sometimes  to  images,  such  as  must 
be  presented  with  precision  and  elegance,  or  they  will 
be  worse  than  nothing.  Such  preparation  of  particu- 
lar sentences  may  be  made  in  writing  and  memorized, 
or  may  be  altogether  mental.  The  advice  is  often 
given  to  memorize  the  introduction,  and  extemporize 
the  language  of  the  remainder  of  the  discourse.  This 
is  of  questionable  propriety.  It  gives  a  formal  air  at 
the  outset,  and  is  apt  to  make  the  transition  precipi- 
tous. Passages  of  Scripture  which  are  to  be  quoted, 
or  other  proposed  quotations,  should  be  gone  over  in 
the  mind  during  the  immediate  preparation,  that  there 
may  be  no  blundering  or  hesitation. 

Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs  in  his  useful  volume  of  lectures  on 


PREPARATION   AND   DELIVERY.  475 

**  Preaching  without  Notes  "  well  states  the  conditions 
of  success  in  this  kind  of  preaching  as  follows :  First 
he  mentions  the  physical  and  intellectual  conditions : 
(i)  Physical  vigor  —  promoted  by  exercise,  sleep, 
and  the  usual  preservatives  of  health  and  vitality. 
(2)  Mental  vigor — maintained  by  intent,  rapid,  and 
wide  reading;  by  converse  with  equal  minds;  by 
variety  of  work.  (3)  The  plan  of  the  sermon  must 
be  simple,  progressive,  and  thoroughly  imbedded  in 
the  mind.  (4)  The  preacher  must  have  command 
of  enough  subordinate  trains  of  thought  to  aid  in  un- 
folding and  impressing  what  he  has  to  say.  In  the 
second  place  he  discusses  the  moral  and  spiritual 
conditions:  (i)  There  should  be  distinct  and  ener- 
getic sense  of  the  importance  of  this  particular  sub- 
ject; (2)  a  definite  end,  a  practical  impression  which 
this  discourse  is  to  make  on  these  hearers;  (3)  a 
sense  of  responsibility  in  view  of  the  consequences 
of  this  discussion  and  of  the  preacher's  present  faith- 
fulness ;  (4)  a  solemn  sense  of  the  personal  presence 
of  the  Master.  He  adds  in  addition,  (5)  that  the 
preacher  should  be  careless  of  criticism,  and  (6) 
should  expect  success.  These  suggestive  hints  are 
suitably  expanded  in  the  treatment,  and  they  are 
worthy  of  remembrance  and  further  reflection,  com- 
ing from  one  who  has  achieved  distinguished  success 
in  the  mode  of  preaching  which  he  advocates.  Much 
to  the  same  purpose  are  the  wise  words  of  Professor 
Park,  who  urges  ^^X  fervent  piety  is  the  foremost  of 
all  requisites  for  extemporaneous  preaching,  as  it 
will  promote  (i)  the  preacher's  interest  in  his  theme; 
(2)  affection  for  his  hearers ;  (3)  confidence  of  suc- 
cess; (4)  determination  to  accomplish  something; 
(5)  control  over  his  feelings  —  all  necessary  to  effec- 
tive preaching. 

We  now  see  how  the  inexperienced  young  preacher 


476  PREPARATION   AND    DELIVERY. 

may  speak  extemporaneously  without  any  great  dan- 
ger of  utter  failure.  Let  him  arrange  the  discourse 
with  great  care,  and  again  and  again  think  through 
the  whole,  m^ing  no  effort  to  retain  the  words  he 
lights  upon  (save  as  to  definitions,  etc.),  but  getting 
the  thoughts,  and  their  succession,  perfectly  familiar. 
Speaking  it  over  in  his  room  or  in  the  forest  is  not 
wrong,  and  some  find  it  in  their  early  preparations 
very  useful.  Then  let  him  pray  for  help,  and  go  for- 
ward, —  he  can  remember  better  than  he  supposes,  — 
and  facility  will  rapidly  increase. 

In  familiar  conversation  with  such  a  young  brother, 
one  might  add  such  hints  as  the  following,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  actual  preaching.  If  you  forget  what  you 
meant  to  say  next,  do  not  stop.  Nothing  is  so  awk- 
ward as  a  dead  pause ;  and  the  awkwardness  increases 
in  geometrical  ratio  to  the  seconds  of  time.  Say 
something,  repeat,  recapitulate,  talk  at  random  even, 
—  anything  rather  than  stop.  If  you  become  em- 
barrassed with  a  tangled  sentence,  do  not  turn  back, 
but  burst  through.  If  you  have  made  a  mistake  of 
grammar,  pronunciation,  or  the  like,  do  not  stop  to 
correct  it,  unless  it  is  serious.  An  occasional  inad- 
vertence is  readily  pardoned,  if  the  general  style  be 
good.  And  if  you  greatly  blunder  in  style,  forget  half 
your  best  thoughts,  or  utterly  break  down,  it  will  not 
kill  you.  Other  great  men  have  failed.  Remember 
young  Robert  Hall. 

Public  speaking  is  one  of  the  noblest  exercises  of 
the  human  powers ;  preaching  is  its  highest  form ; 
and  if  extemporaneous  speaking  be  the  best  method 
of  preaching,  it  is  surely  worth  labor  to  attain  excel- 
lence in  this,  —  diligent  and  faithful  self-cultivation, 
resolute  determination  always  to  do  our  best,  as  long 
as  we  live. 


ON   DELIVERY,  AS   REGARDS   VOICE.       477 
CHAPTER    II. 

ON  DELIVERY,  AS  REGARDS  VOICE. 


§  I.  General    Remarks    on    De- 
livery. 
2.  The    Voice  —  Its    Distinct 
Powers. 


§  3.  General    Improvement    of 
THE  Voice. 
4.  Management  of  the  Voice 
WHEN  Actually  Speaking. 


§  I.      GENERAL  REMARKS  ON  DELIVERY.^ 

IT  can  never  be  necessary  to  urge  the  importance 
of  delivery  upon  persons  who  correctly  under- 
stand its  nature,  and  who  appreciate  the  objects  of 
public  speaking. 

The  famous  saying  of  Demosthenes,  repeatedly 
mentioned  by  Cicero,  is  sometimes  utterly  misrepre- 
sented. He  did  not  say  that  the  first  thing,  second 
thing,  third  thing  in  oratory  is  action,  in  the  present 
English  sense  of  that  term,  but  delivery,  for  this,  as  is 
well  known,  is  what  the  Latin  actio  signifies.  And 
delivery  does  not  consist  merely,  or  even  chiefly,  in 
vocalization  and  gesticulation,  but  it  implies  that  one 
is  possessed  with  the  subject,  that  he  is  completely  in 

1  Of  the  works  mentioned  in  the  Bibliography,  the  most  valuable 
on  this  subject  are  those  of  Cicero  and  Quintilian,  VVhately  (onesided, 
but  instructive),  Monod,  and  Mcllvaine.  The  last  is  by  far  the  best 
treatise  on  the  subject  in  existence,  containing  much  thorough  dis- 
cussion of  principle  and  many  useful  suggestions,  with  but  little  that 
is  liable  to  serious  objection.  It  will  be  frequently  referred  to  in  this 
and  the  following  chapter.  Plumptre's  King's  College  Lectures 
on  Elocution,  London,  1870,  is  worth  examining,  though  ill-arranged, 
and  often  feeble.  The  two  chapters  on  Action  in  Dabney's  Sacred 
Rhetoric,  Richmond,  1870,  present  a  brief,  but  vigorous  and  useful 
discussion,  Russell's  Vocal  Culture  is  a  valuable  treatise,  containing 
in  popularized  form  much  of  Dr.  Rush's  scientific  discussion  of  the 
Voice.    See  the  Bibliography  for  other  works. 


473      ON    DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE. 

sympathy  with  it  and  fully  alive  to  its  importance ; 
that  he  is  not  repeating  remembered  words,  but  set" 
ting  free  the  thoughts  shut  up  in  his  mind.  Even  act- 
ing is  good  only  in  proportion  as  the  actor  identifies 
himself  with  the  person  represented  —  really  thinks 
and  really  feels  what  he  is  saying.  In  the  speaker 
this  ought  to  be  perfect;  he  is  not  undertaking  to 
represent  another  person,  to  appropriate  another's 
thoughts  and  feelings,  but  aims,  or  should  aim,  simply 
to  be  himself,  to  utter  what  his  own  mind  has  pro- 
duced. 

Why  then  do  speakers  so  often  and  so  sadly  fail  in 
respect  to  this  chief  element  of  delivery?  Partly  be- 
cause many  of  the  thoughts  they  present  are  bor- 
rowed, and  have  never  been  digested  by  reflection, 
and  incorporated  into  the  substance  of  their  own 
thinking.  Partly  because  they  so  frequently  say  not 
what  they  really  feel,  but  what  they  think  they  ought 
to  feel,  and  are,  it  may  be  earnestly,  but  yet  unsuc- 
cessfully, trying  to  feel.  And  still  more  because  they 
are  uttering  the  product  of  a  former  mental  activity, 
namely,  at  the  time  of  preparation ;  and  even  if  the 
thought  and  feeling  were  then  perfectly  real  and  genu- 
ine, yet  the  mental  states  which  produced  them  do  now 
but  imperfectly  return.  In  each  of  these  respects  it  is 
seen  that  the  speaker  is  likely  to  be  to  some  extent 
an  actor ;  and  we  can  easily  understand  how  a  gifted 
and  laborious  actor  may  become  much  more  thor- 
oughly possessed  with  thought  and  sentiment  which 
are  wholly  another's,  than  a  speaker  wanting  in  gifts 
and  labor,  with  such  as  are  at  the  moment  not  wholly 
his  own.  Besides,  we  do  not  expect  of  the  actor 
perfect  success  in  this  respect,  and  we  wonder  and 
admire  that  he  sometimes  so  nearly  approaches  per- 
fection ;  while  of  the  speaker  we  naturally  do  expect 
perfection,  and  are  offended  that  he  obviously  comes 


ON   DELIVERY,  AS   REGARDS   VOICE.       479 

short  of  it^  For  a  speaker,  then,  and  above  all  for  a 
preacher,  it  is  a  matter  of  the  highest  importance  that 
he  should  resist  the  tendency  to  become  in  part  an 
actor,  should  strive  most  earnestly  to  say  nothing  but 
what  he  now  really  thinks  and  now  truly  feels.  It 
may  sometimes  be  that  while  a  preacher  is  chagrined 
at  having  forgotten  a  choice  expression  or  a  treasured 
thought,  the  omission  of  what  his  mind's  present 
activity  failed  to  produce  may  in  fact  have  been  a 
gain,  for  it  would  have  come  in  only  as  a  dead  thing, 
detracting  from  the  vitality,  and  retarding  the  move- 
ment, of  the  discourse  as  a  whole.  At  any  rate  it 
seems  to  be  clear  that  a  preacher  should  seek  to  form 
mental  habits  quite  different  from  those  of  an  actor. 
And  while  men  who  wish  to  be  orators  are  found  ex- 
pecting to  profit  by  taking  lessons  from  actors,  it  is 
all  the  while  true  that  the  actor  is  but  attempting  to 
imitate  the  orator.  It  is  surely  better  to  strike  at  the 
heart  of  the  matter,  and  try  to  be  the  real  thing  one 
is  called  to  be,  than  to  copy  an  imperfect  copy  — 
better  to  practise  ourselves  in  saying  what  we  really 
do  think  and  feel,  than  to  learn  from  an  actor  how  to 
say  what  we  do  not,  almost  as  if  we  did. 

These  views  receive  confirmation  from  the  strong 
words  of  one  who  has  rarely  been  equalled  in  his  ap- 
preciation and  his  mastery  of  true  art. 

"  Wagner.     I  've  often  heard  them  boast,  a  preacher 
Might  profit  with  a  player  for  his  teacher. 

Faust.     Yes,  when  the  preacher  is  a  player,  granted : 
As  often  happens  in  our  modern  ways. 

Wagner.   Ah  !  when  one  with  such  love  of  study 's  haunted, 
And  scarcely  sees  the  world  on  holidays, 
And  takes  a  spy-glass,  as  it  were,  to  read  it, 
How  can  one  by  persuasion  hope  to  lead  it  ? 

1  Comp.  above,  Part  III.  chap.  iv.  on  the  difference  between 
poetry  and  eloquence. 


480      ON    DELIVERY,   AS    REGARDS   VOICE. 

Faust.   What  you  don't  feel,  you  'II  never  catch  by  hunting, 
It  must  gush  out  spontaneous  from  the  soul, 
And,  with  a  fresh  delight  enchanting. 
The  hearts  of  all  that  hear  control. 
Sit  there  forever !     Thaw  your  glue-pot,  — 
Blow  up  your  ash-heap  to  a  flame,  and  brew, 
With  a  dull  fire,  in  your  stew-pot, 
Of  other  men's  leavings  a  ragout ! 
Children  and  apes  will  gaze  delighted. 
If  their  critiques  can  pleasure  impart ; 
But  never  a  heart  will  be  ignited. 
Comes  not  the  spark  from  the  speaker's  heart. 

Wagner.     Delivery  makes  the  orator's  success ; 
Though  I  'm  still  far  behindhand,  I  confess. 

Faust.     Seek  honest  gains,  without  pretence  I 
Be  not  a  cymbal-tinkling  fool ! 
Sound  understanding  and  good  sense 
Speak  out  with  little  art  or  rule  ; 
And  when  you  've  something  earnest  to  utter. 
Why  hunt  for  words  in  such  a  flutter  ? 
Yes,  your  discourses,  that  are  so  refined, 
In  which  humanity's  poor  shreds  you  frizzle, 
Are  unrefreshing  as  the  mist  and  wind 
That  through  the  withered  leaves  of  autumn  whistle." ^ 

A  speech,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  exists  only 
in  the  act  of  speaking.  All  that  precedes  is  prepara- 
tion for  a  speech ;  all  that  remains  afterwards  is 
report  of  what  was  spoken.  Whatever  maybe  neces- 
sary for  convenience  in  our  rhetorical  treatises,  it  is 
yet  exceedingly  important  not  to  think  of  the  speech 
and  the  delivery  as  things  existing  apart.  Whatever 
be  our  method  of  preparing,  we  should  habitually 
regard  all  as  but  preparation ;  it  must  be  cherished 
and  kept  alive  in  the  mind,  must  be  vitally  a  part  of 
Itself,  and  then  as  living,  breathing  thought  it  will  be 
delivered. 

And  as  the  preparation  is  not  a  speech  till  it  is 

1  Goethe's  Faust,  tr.  by  Brooks. 


ON   DELIVERY,  AS   REGARDS   VOICE.       481 

spoken,  so  the  mere  manner  of  speaking  should  not 
at  the  time  receive  separate  attention.  It  should  be 
the  spontaneous  product  of  the  speaker's  peculiar 
constitution,  as  acted  on  by  the  subject  which  now 
fills  his  mind  and  heart.  The  idea  of  becoming  elo- 
quent merely  by  the  study  of  voice  and  gesture, 
though  sometimes  entertained,  is  essentially  absurd. 
No  one  would  expect  to  become  agreeable  in  con- 
versation by  such  means.  The  Athenians  set  a  far 
greater  value  than  we  do  upon  what  has  been  called 
"the  statuary  and  the  music  of  oratory."  They 
listened  to  political  and  judicial  speeches  with  much 
of  the  same  critical  spirit  with  which  we  hear  a  pro- 
fessional musician  or  a  literary  lecture.  Yet  they 
were  very  far  from  giving  their  chief  attention  to  the 
mere  use  of  voice  and  gesture.  And  even  taking 
delivery  in  its  broadest  sense,  we  find  that  Demos- 
thenes, as  heretofore  remarked,^  by  no  means  treated 
delivery  as  the  great  thing.  He  took  it  for  granted 
that  an  orator  would  be  careful  about  materials, 
arrangement,  style,  and  his  orations  show  that  he 
himself  was  thus  careful  in  the  very  highest  degree. 
But  delivery,  peculiarly  important  in  Athens,  had 
been  for  him  a  peculiarly  difficult  task.  Hence  his 
striking,  hyperboHcal  statement  —  delivery  is  every- 
thing. 

The  things  requisite  to  effective  delivery  may  be 
briefly  stated  as  follows :  — 

Have  something  to  say  which  you  are  confident  is 
worth  saying;  scarcely  anything  will  contribute  so 
much  as  this  confidence,  to  give  dignity,  direct- 
ness, ease,  and  power  to  delivery.  Have  the  treat- 
ment well  arranged,  not  after  the  fashion  of  an  essay, 
but  with  the  orderly  and  rapid  movement  proper  to 
a  discourse.  Be  thoroughly  familiar  with  all  that  you 
1  See  above,  Introduction,  §  5. 


482      ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE. 

propose  to  say,  so  that  you  may  feel  no  uneasiness ; 
for  the  dread  of  failure  sadly  interrupts  the  flow  of 
thought  and  feeling.^  Think  it  all  over  within  a  short 
time  of  the  hour  for  speaking,  so  that  you  may  be 
sure  of  the  ground,  and  so  that  your  feelings  may 
be  brought  into  lively  sympathy  with  the  subject ;  it 
is,  however,  best  immediately  before  speaking  to  have 
the  mind  free  from  active  thought,  maintaining  only 
a  quiet,  devotional  frame.  Let  the  physical  condi- 
tion be  as  vigorous  as  possible.  In  order  to  this 
seek  good  health  in  general ;  take  abundant  sleep  the 
night  before  speaking ;  at  the  meal  before  speaking 
eat  moderately,  of  food  easily  digested,  and  if  you  are 
to  speak  immediately,  eat  very  little ;  and  do  not,  if 
it  can  possibly  be  avoided,  exhaust  your  vitality  dur- 
ing the  day  by  exciting  conversation.  A  healthy 
condition  of  the  nervous  system  is  surpassingly  im- 
portant; not  a  morbid  excitability,  such  as  is  pro- 
duced by  studying  very  late  the  night  before,  but  a 
healthy  condition,  so  that  feeling  may  quickly  respond 
to  thought,  so  that  there  may  be  sympathetic  emotion, 
and  at  the  same  time  complete  self-control.^ 

Above  all,  be  yourself  Speak  out  with  freedom 
and  earnestness  what  you  think  and  feel.  Better  a 
thousand  faults  than  through  dread  of  faults  to  be 
tame.  Some  of  the  most  useful  preachers,  men  in  a 
true  and  high  sense  eloquent,  have  had  grave  defects 
of  manner.  Habitually  correct  faults  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, but  whether  the  voice  and  the  action  be  good  or 
bad,  if  there  is  something  in  you  to  say,  speak  it  out. 
And  by  all  means  let  there  be  no  affectation,  or  even 
artificiality.^ 

1  Comp.  Mcllvaine  on  Elocution,  p.  120. 

2  Comp.  Mcllvaine,  pp.  103  £f.,  165  ff. ;  Monod,  p.  399 f. ;  Pittenger, 
pp.  190-192. 

*  Comp.  above,  Introd.  §  5. 


ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE.       483 


And  most  of  all  in  man  that  ministers 
And  serves  the  altar,  in  my  soul  I  loathe 
All  affectation.     'T  is  my  perfect  scorn ; 
Object  of  my  implacable  disgust. 
What !  will  a  man  play  tricks,  will  he  indulge 
A  silly  fond  conceit  of  his  fair  form 
And  just  proportion,  fashionable  mien, 
And  pretty  face,  in  presence  of  his  God  ? 
Or  will  he  seek  to  dazzle  me  with  tropes 
As  with  the  diamond  on  his  lily  hand, 
And  play  his  brilliant  parts  before  my  eyes 
When  I  am  hungry  for  the  bread  of  life  ? 
He  mocks  his  Maker,  prostitutes  and  shames 
His  noble  office,  and,  instead  of  truth, 
Displaying  his  own  beauty,  starves  his  flock ! 
Therefore,  avaunt  all  attitude,  and  stare, 
And  start  theatric,  practised  at  the  glass  !  "  ^ 

§  2.      THE  VOICE  —  ITS   DISTINCT   POWERS. 

The  voice  is  the  speaker's  great  instrument.  Noth- 
ing else  in  a  man's  physical  constitution  is  nearly  so 
important.  *'  For  an  effective  and  admirable  deliv- 
ery," says  Cicero,  **  the  voice,  beyond  doubt,  holds 
the  highest  place."  ^  Not  every  eminent  orator  has 
possessed  a  commanding  person,  but  every  one  of 
great  eminence  has  had  an  effective  voice.  The  faults 
which  come  from  natural  organization,  such  as  drawl- 
ing, fineness,  feebleness,  defective  articulation,  may 
often  be  partially  remedied  by  judicious  and  patient 
effort ;  witness  Demosthenes.  And  a  voice  extremely 
faulty  in  some  respects,  may  yet  in  other  respects 
have  great  power,  and  be  precisely  suited  to  the 
mental  character  of  the  man ;  witness  John  Randolph. 
Mr.  Gladstone  says  that  Sheil  had  a  voice  like  a  tin 
kettle  battered  this  way  and  that,  Newman's  voice 
was  thin  and  weak,  and  Chalmers  had  a  harsh  Scotch 

1  Cowper.  2  De  Oratore,  III.  60. 


484      ON   DELIVERY,  AS   REGARDS  VOICE. 

accent,  —  yet  in  each  case  the  voice  was  in  such  per- 
fect keeping  with  the  entire  delivery  and  the  entire 
man  that  you  would  not  have  had  it  otherwise.  It  is 
said  of  Burke  that  "his  voice,  which  he  never  attempted 
to  discipline,  was  harsh  when  he  was  calm,  and  when 
he  was  excited  he  often  became  so  hoarse  as  to  be 
hardly  intelligible."  This,  along  with  the  essay-style 
of  his  otherwise  magnificent  speeches,  will  account 
for  the  fact  that  he  was  commonly  listened  to  with 
weariness ;  yet  on  some  occasions,  when  expressing 
certain  varieties  of  thought  and  feeling,  his  delivery 
was  very  forcible.^  Robert  Hall  had  a  comparatively 
weak  voice ;  but  he  gave  it  effect  by  rapidity  of  utter- 
ance, and  when  he  was  excited  it  would  swell  into 
power.  The  vocal  gifts  of  Chrysostom,  Whitefield, 
Spurgeon,  are  well  known.  From  all  this  it  appears 
that  while  one  cannot  be  an  orator  of  the  highest 
class  without  unusual  powers  of  voice,  he  may  yet  be 
a  highly  effective  speaker  notwithstanding  grave  de- 
fects; so  that  every  one  should  be  encouraged  to 
make  the  best  of  such  vocal  powers  as  he  possesses. 

A  minute  acquaintance  with  the  anatomy  and  phy- 
siology of  the  organs  of  speech  is  not  necessary  to 
the  orator.  Even  a  general  knowledge  of  them  is 
more  useful  in  the  way  of  avoiding  disease  than  of 
positively  improving  delivery .^ 

But  there  are  certain  powers  of  voice  which,  with 
reference  to  public  speaking,  it  is  important  to  dis- 
tinguish. 

(i)  Compass,  the  range  of  pitch  over  which  the 
voice  extends.  The  difference  between  voices  in  this 
respect  is  very  obvious  in  the  case  of  singers,  but  it 
is  not  less  real  in  speaking,  and  is  a  matter  of  great 

1  See  Bulwer  on  Style,  in  Caxtoniana. 

2  A  good  and  sufficient  account  of  these  organs  is  given  by 
Mcllvaine,  pp.  183-198,  and  generally  in  the  treatises  on  Elocution. 


ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE.      485 

consequence  in  expressing  the  immense  variety  of 
sentiments  which  a  speaker  will  feel,  even  in  the 
progress  of  the  s^me  discourse. 

(2)  Volume,  the  quantity  of  sound  produced,  is 
entirely  distinct  from  pitch,  though  frequently  con- 
founded with  it  in  the  popular  use  of  such  terms  as 
"  loud "  and  "  strong."  Ample  volume,  properly 
regulated,  will  render  the  voice  audible  to  a  greater 
distance,  and  will  make  it  more  commanding. 

(3)  Penetrating  power.  The  distance  to  which 
one  can  be  heard,  does  not  depend  simply  on  volume 
and  pitch,  nor  on  distinct  articulation ;  there  is  a  dif- 
ference between  voices  as  to  their  power  of  penetra- 
tion. A  similar  difference  exists  in  the  case  of  many 
other  sounds,  natural  and  artificial.  The  philosophy 
of  it  has  not  been  satisfactorily  explained,  and  the 
fact  is  scarcely  noticed  in  treatises  on  elocution,  but  a 
very  little  observation  will  convince  one  that  the  dif- 
ference is  real.  Indeed,  penetrating  power  is  some- 
times clearly  hereditary,^  which  proves  that  it  is  a 
natural  property  of  voice. 

(4)  Melody.  This  depends  on  both  sweetness 
and  flexibility  of  voice.  The  single  sounds  must  be 
sweet,  and  the  constant  transitions  in  pitch,  required 
by  variations  of  sentiment,  must  be  made  with  prompt- 
ness, precision,  and  smoothness.  A  voice  is  not  me- 
lodious if  in  either  respect  deficient. 

§  3.   GENERAL  IMPROVEMENT  OF  THE  VOICE. 

Cicero  tells  us  that  Caius  Gracchus,  when  speak- 
ing, kept  a  servant  near  him  and  out  of  sight,  having 
a  flute,  the  note  of  which  would  now  and  then  bring 
up  the  orator's  voice  when  flagging,  or  recall  it  when 
overstrained;    and  he  judiciously  adds  that  it  were 

1  The  author  is  familiar  with  a  manifest  instance. 


486       ON   DELIVERY,  AS   REGARDS   VOICE. 

better  to  leave  the  flute-player  at  home,  and  carry  to 
the  forum  the  habit  acquired.^  This  holds  good  as 
to  all  vocal  improvement,  in  fact  as  to  all  that  pertains 
to  delivery.  We  must  seek  by  general  exercise  and 
care  to  form  such  habits,  of  speech  and  of  bearing, 
that  there  may  be  little  need  to  give  them  attention 
when  actually  engaged  in  public  speaking. 

Whatever  improves  the  general  health  will  improve 
the  voice,  especially  muscular  exercise,  and  particu- 
larly such  as  develops  the  chest,  and  promotes  an 
easy  erectness  of  position.  Singing  cultivates  the 
voice  in  almost  every  respect,  and  probably  to  a 
greater  extent  than  anything  else  except  actual 
speaking.  It  is  on  many  other  accounts  also  very 
desirable  that  a  minister  should  be  able  to  sing,  and 
to  sing  by  note ;  and  young  ministers,  and  those  pre- 
paring for  the  ministry,  should  take  much  pains  to 
learn  to  sing.  If  it  should  require  as  much  time  and 
effort  to  gain  the  power  of  singing  church  music  at 
sight  as  to  learn  a  modern  language  or  a  branch  of 
science,  it  would  be  fully  as  profitable,  and  almost 
any  man  who  is  still  young  can  learn  to  sing  moder- 
ately well,  by  judicious  and  persevering  effort.  Read- 
ing aloud  is  also  of  good  service  in  cultivating  the 
voice.  It  is,  however,  more  laborious  than  speaking, 
and  should  be  promptly  suspended  when  it  becomes 
decidedly  fatiguing.  A  proper  management  of  the 
voice  in  all  ordinary  conversation,  is  a  matter  of  the 
very  highest  importance.  As  in  politeness,  and  as  in 
style,  so  in  the  use  of  the  voice  (and  also  in  action),  it 
is  impossible  for  one  to  do  really  well  on  special  oc- 
casions who  is  habitually  careless  and  slovenly.  We 
have  already  urged  this  as  regards  style,  and  extem- 
poraneous preaching,  but  it  deserves  to  be  repeated 
and  reiterated.  Take  care  that  your  utterance  in 
1  De  Oratore,  III.  60  f. 


ON    DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE.      487 

conversation  shall  always  be  audible,  agreeable,  and 
at  the  same  time  easy  and  natural ;  and  then  in  pub- 
lic speaking  your  utterance  will  almost  take  care  of 
itself.  Vocal  exercises  may  be  quite  useful  for  certain 
purposes  and  to  some  extent.  If  excessive,  or  of 
an  improper  character,  they  may  seriously  injure 
the  organs;  and  there  is  still  greater  danger  that 
they  will  produce  artificiality.  When  conducted  in 
private,  under  the  direction  of  a  really  judicious 
teacher  of  elocution,  they  might  be  of  great  service  in 
correcting  special  faults ;  but  many  teachers  of  elocu- 
tion, even  intelligent  ones,  appear  singularly  prone  to 
attempt  too  much,  to  be  dissatisfied  with  the  humble 
task  of  correcting  faults;  they  undertake  to  super- 
induce some  positive,  and  of  necessity  artificial  ex- 
cellence. After  all,  practice  in  actual  speaking  is, 
next  to  care  in  conversation,  the  main  thing.  But 
it  must  be  heedful  practice,  with  observation  of  the 
faults  developed,  and  effort  afterwards  to  avoid  them, 
or  it  will  but  confirm  and  render  incurable  one's 
natural  or  accidental  defects.  Some  one  has  said: 
"  Practice  makes  perfect ;  and  bad  practice  makes 
perfectly  bad." 

Care  must  constantly  be  taken  not  to  destroy  indi- 
viduality of  voice.  A  man's  voice  is  a  part  of  him- 
self, a  part  of  his  power ;  he  must  keep  it  essentially 
unaltered,  while  improved  as  far  as  possible. 

A  few  points  may  be  noticed,  as  to  the  means  of 
improving  particular  powers  of  voice. 

(i)  Compass  will  be  improved  by  nothing  so  much 
as  by  singing.  Something  may  be  gained  by  taking 
a  short  sentence,  and  repeating  it  (in  the  open  air) 
on  a  key  successively  elevated  or  lowered,  to  the  full 
limit  of  our  range  of  voice ;  taking  care  that  the  utter- 
ance shall  at  every  pitch  be  speaking,  and  not  become 
half  singing.     In  such  exercises  it  is  necessary  to  re- 


488      ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE. 

member  that  on  a  low  key  it  is  best  to  speak  slowly, 
and  swiftly  on  a  high  key.  The  difference  is  clearly 
seen  in  comparing  the  lower  and  upper  tones  of  a 
piano  or  violin,  and  the  human  voice  is  also  a  stringed 
instrument.  In  actual  speaking,  nature  at  once 
prompts  the  swifter  or  slower  utterance,  if  only  we 
let  nature  have  liberty. 

(2)  As  to  volume,  we  gain  mainly  by  such  habit- 
ual carriage  and  such  physical  exercise  as  may  ex- 
pand and  strengthen  the  lungs.  Riding  horseback, 
cutting  wood,  and  in  a  remarkable  degree  certain 
gymnastical  exercises,  will  have  this  effect,  as  soon 
appears  from  increased  breadth  of  chest.  Taking  a 
series  of  long  breaths,  every  morning  before  break- 
fast, or  at  any  time  of  day  when  the  stomach  is  not 
full,  will  act  upon  the  lungs,  and  if  regularly  practised, 
accomplish  much  more  than  might  be  supposed. 
The  habit  of  talking  with  the  mouth  well  opened,  so 
as  to  give  full  and  free  utterance  (of  course  without 
mouthing),  is  here  quite  important.  Occasional  loud 
singing  (not  on  a  high  pitch)  will  be  of  service,  and 
actual  speaking,  unless  very  badly  managed,  will 
steadily  augment  the  volume  of  one's  voice,  through 
all  his  earlier  years. 

(3)  Penetrating  power  may  be  increased  by  giving 
the  matter  distinct  attention,  in  vocal  exercises,  and 
sometimes  in  speaking.  The  effort  should  be  to  pro- 
ject the  voice,  to  make  it  reach  farther,  without  elevat- 
ing the  pitch  or  increasing  the  quantity  of  sound.  By 
calling  to  a  friend  on  an  opposite  hill,  or  by  fixing  the 
eye  on  a  distant  person  in  a  large  audience  and  en- 
deavoring to  make  him  hear,  we  naturally  develop 
this  power ;  but  great  care  must  be  taken  not  to  sub- 
stitute an  alteration  of  pitch  or  tone.  It  is  found  by 
physical  experiments  of  different  kinds,  that  pure 
tones,  those  not  mixed  with  irregular  noises,  tones 


ON   DELIVERY,   AS    REGARDS   VOICE.      489 

full,  clear,  steady,^  are  heard  at  a  greater  distance 
than  others ;  and  this  is  even  a  more  important  reason 
for  cultivating  purity  of  tone  than  its  effect  in  the  way 
of  melody. 

Purity  of  tone  applies  chiefly  to  the  utterance  of 
vowel  sounds.  But  penetrating  power  of  voice  is 
also  greatly  assisted  by  the  distinct  articulation  of 
consonants.  Nothing  is  more  common  than  in  ap- 
proaching a  speaker  to  hear  sound,  even  loud  sound, 
before  we  hear  words.  This  is  chiefly  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  speaker  swells  his  vowel  sounds,  but 
does  not  bring  out  the  consonants.  Yet  it  is  mainly 
these  that  determine  the  word,  in  speech  as  well  as  in 
stenography. 

Now  as  to  distinctness  of  articulation,  great  faults 
are  very  common,  and  there  is  ample  room  for  culti- 
vation, by  simple  means.  In  conversation,  reading, 
speaking,  especially  in  singing  (because  there  it  is 
most  difficult),  let  pains  be  constantly  taken  to  articu- 
late every  letter  according  to  its  true  sound,  and 
particularly  every  consonant.  Special  exercises  may 
be  used,  containing  consonants  often  neglected,  such 
as  the  strong  r  and  the  nasal  sound  of  ing,  or  difficult 
combinations  of  two  or  three  consonants,  as  shrink, 
expects,  fifth  and  sixth  verses.  It  is  on  various 
accounts  important  that  preachers  should  learn  to 
utter  with  ease  the  forms  of  the  second  person  singu- 
lar of  verbs,  such  as  wouldst,  blessedst,  etc.,  which 
constantly  occur  in  prayer  and  sometimes  in  ex- 
hortation. Where  a  consonant,  or  combination  of 
consonants,  ends  one  word  and  begins  the  next, 
there  is  often  special  difficulty.  For  example,  **  take 
care,"  "sit  down."  Not  one  in  five  of  educated 
ministers  will  correctly  articulate  the  words,  "  In 
the  evening  it  is  cut  down  and  withereth."  An  ex- 
1  Comp.  Mcllvaine,  p.  296. 


490      ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE. 

cellent  example  is  the  saying,  "  It  is  the  first  step  that 
costs."  ^ 

Distinctness  of  articulation  is  everywhere  much 
neglected  by  the  masses  of  men ;  it  is  especially  so 
in  this  country,  and  particularly  at  the  South.  Ameri- 
can English  is  feebler  in  sound  than  the  language  in 
England ;  and  at  the  South  there  is  already  to  some 
extent  seen  the  general  tendency  of  people  living  in  a 
warm  climate,  to  prolong  and  make  musical  the  vowel 
sounds,  but  to  drop,  alter,  or  slur  over  the  strong 
combinations  of  consonants.  This  is  a  grave  fault 
in  public  speaking.  Itahan  is  admirable  for  music, 
but  for  oratory,  genuine  English  is  far  better.  At 
the  same  time  let  us  beware  of  extremes.  The  roll- 
ing Scotch  r,  for  instance,  is  contrary  to  the  estab- 
lished usage  of  America,  and  should  not  be  imitated. 
And  in  general,  we  must  not  show  an  effort  at  distinct- 
ness; even  mumbling  is  hardly  so  bad  as  this.  A 
man  need  not  speak  —  a  German  writer  suggests  — 
like  one  who  is  teaching  the  deaf  and  dumb  to  talk. 
When  one  who  grew  up  with  careless  habits  as  to 
articulation  first  attempts  to  correct  them,  he  will  for 
a  while  betray  the  effort ;  but  this  can  be  soon  over- 
come, by  practising  exercises  in  private,  and  especially 
by  care  in  conversation. 

He  who  wishes  to  be  heard  at  a  great  distance, 
must  speak  rather  slowly.  There  is  thus  a  clear 
interval  between  the  sound-waves,  and  even  when 
they  have  come  a  long  way  and  are  growing  faint,  they 
will  still  be  distinct. 

This  penetrating  power  of  voice,  with  the  distinct 
articulation  which  aids  it,  is  believed  to  deserve  the 
special  attention  of  all  public  speakers. 

1  Useful  collections  of  examples  for  this  purpose  may  be  found 
in  the  highest  School  Readers,  and  in  some  works  on  elocution. 
Mcllvaine  has  good  remarks  on  articulation,  pp.  218-226,  and  a  long 
and  instructive  chapter  on  pronunciation,  pp.  239-293. 


ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE.      49I 

(4)  As  regards  melodyy  we  have  seen  that  it  de- 
pends on  sweetness  and  flexibility  of  voice.  The 
former  is  chiefly  a  natural  quality,  but  it  may  be  im- 
proved by  singing;  also  in  conversation  by  attention 
to  purity  of  tone,  avoiding  huskiness,  and  all  mingling 
of  mere  noise  with  the  vocal  utterance ;  and  in  general, 
by  keeping  the  organs  of  speech  in  a  healthy  condi- 
tion. The  vowel  sounds  are  here  most  important,  the 
prolongation  of  these  making  the  sweet  tones.  The 
consonants,  while  distinctly  articulated  for  other 
purposes,  must  in  order  to  melody  be  uttered  with 
smoothness  and  ease.  There  is  a  marked  tendency 
in  this  country,  particularly  at  the  North,  to  omit  or 
disguise  many  unaccented  vowel  sounds,  thereby 
greatly  impairing  the  melody  of  the  words,  and  some- 
times making  them  indistinct.  Take,  for  example, 
the  shortened  utterance  we  so  often  hear,  of  absolutey 
tolerable,  immensity?-  This  tendency  ought  to  be 
studiously  avoided  by  all  who  desire  to  speak  agree- 
ably, and  should  be  resisted  and  corrected  by  all  who 
wish  well  to  our  language.  But  not  a  few  preachers 
go  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and  exhibit  an  affected 
precision.  Thus  in  difficult  the  vowel  of  the  second 
syllable  should  have  its  proper  sound  (though  vul- 
garly sounded  like  short  u),  but  in  audible,  sensible^ 
this  would  be  an  affectation,  for  the  disguised  sound 
is  established  by  the  best  usage. 

Flexibility  is  necessary  for  the  exact  expression  of 
varying  sentiment,  as  well  as  for  melody.  It  will  im- 
prove by  practice,  if  one  speaks  with  earnest  feeling, 
and  it  may  be  cultivated  by  any  exercises  involving 
quick  transitions  from  one  pitch  to  a  much  higher  or 
lower  one.  **  Probably  the  best  exercise  is  that  of 
reading  aloud  .  .  .  dialogues,  in  which  the  reader 
represents  alternately  a  number  of  interlocutors.    The 

1  Comp.  Dabney's  Sac.  Rhet.  p.  305. 


492      ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE. 

animation  which  is  characteristic  of  this  species  of 
discourse,  and  the  frequent  and  rapid  changes  of  the 
voice  which  are  requisite  to  maintain  the  distinction 
of  persons  and  characters,  afford  the  most  effective 
aids  to  the  development  of  this  power.  Humorous 
selections  also  are  good  for  this  purpose."^ 

Melody  is  exceedingly  desirable,  but  without  pos- 
sessing it  in  a  high  degree  a  speaker's  voice  may  be, 
on  other  accounts,  very  effective.  And  it  is  a  grave 
fault  to  play  tunes  on  the  voice,  to  give  a  sort  of  mu- 
sical accompaniment,  distinct  from  the  sentiments 
uttered,  as  appears  to  be  quite  common  in  England, 
and  is  sometimes  seen  in  America,  in  the  pulpit-tone 
of  even  educated  men. 

§  4.      MANAGEMENT   OF  THE  VOICE  WHEN  ACTUALLY 
PREACHING. 

A  few  simple  hints  may  be  profitably  borne  in 
mind. 

(i)  Do  not  begin  on  too  high  a  key.  One  is  par- 
ticularly apt  to  do  this  in  the  open  air,  or  in  a  large 
and  unfamiliar  church,  or  when  much  excited.  It  is 
wonderful  how  difficult  a  speaker  finds  it  to  lower  the 
main  key  on  which  he  has  once  fairly  started.  He 
may  become  aware  of  it  in  three  minutes,  and  make 
repeated  efforts  to  correct  the  mistake,  but  in  most 
cases  he  will  fail;  and  when  impassioned  passages 
come,  in  which  the  voice  must  rise,  it  will  rise  to  a 
scream.  Every  one  has  often  witnessed  this  pro- 
cess. It  is  of  course  not  impossible  to  change  the 
key,  and  this  should  be  carefully  attempted  when 
necessary.     But  the  great  matter  is  to  avoid  begin- 

1  Mcllvaine,  p.  320.  His  chapters  on  the  qualities  and  powers  of 
the  voice,  and  their  improvement,  pp.  294-320,  contain  a  good  deal 
that  is  useful. 


ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   VOICE.      493 

ning  wrong.    Tenor  voices,  it  is  obvious,  are  especially 
apt  to  begin  too  high. 

If  one  becomes  impassioned  in  the  early  part  of 
the  discourse,  he  ought  not  then  to  let  out  his  voice 
in  its  full  force,  but  reserve  its  highest  power  for 
some  later  and  culminating  point,  as  is  done  with  the 
more  powerful  instruments  in  an  oratorio.^  In  fact, 
the  voice  should  very  rarely  go  to  its  highest  pitch, 
or  to  its  fullest  volume ;  there  ought  always  to  be  a 
reserve  force,  unless  it  be  in  some  moment  of  the 
most  exalted  passion.  Long  passages  of  bawling,  re- 
lieved only  by  occasional  bursts  into  a  harrowing 
scream,  are  in  every  sense  hurtful  to  all  concerned. 

It  was  speaking  long  on  a  high  key  in  the  open  air, 
with  unrestrained  passion,  that  led  many  of  the  early 
Baptist  preachers  of  this  country  into  that  sing-song, 
or  "  holy  whine,"  which  is  still  heard  in  some  parts  of 
the  country.  The  voice,  strained  and  fatigued,  in- 
stinctively sought  relief  in  a  rhythmical  rise  and  fall, 
as  is  also  the  case  in  the  loud  cries  of  street  peddlers. 
They  were  commonly  zealous,  and  sometimes  great 
men  who  fell  into  this  fault,  and  it  was  often  imitated 
by  those  who  followed  them,  after  the  usual  super- 
ficial fashion  of  imitators,  mistaking  the  obvious  fault 
for  the  hidden  power.  To  some  of  the  ignorant 
people,  this  peculiar  whine  is  connected  by  a  life-long 
association  with  the  most  impressive  truths  and  the 
most  solemn  occasions ;  and  so  it  touches  their  feel- 
ings, independently  of  what  is  said,  and  sometimes 
when  the  preacher's  words  are  not  heard  —  like  the 
revival  tunes,  or  those  familiar  to  us  from  childhood. 

We  must  not  begin  on  a  high  key,  and  yet  the  text 
should  be  distinctly  heard.     The  difficulty  thus  aris- 
ing when  the  audience  is  large,  may  be  overcome  by 
stating  the  text  slowly,  distinctly,  and  if  necessary,  a 
^  Palmer,  Homiletik,  s.  538. 


494      ON    DELIVERY,   AS    REGARDS   VOICE. 

second  time ;   and  by  projecting  the  voice,  instead  of 
elevating  it. 

(2)  Do  not  suffer  the  voice  to  drop  in  the  last 
words  of  a  sentence.  Though  it  must  often  sink,  re- 
turning to  the  general  pitch  of  the  discourse,  yet  it 
must  not  fall  too  suddenly,  nor  too  low.  It  is  not 
uncommon  for  the  last  words  to  be  quite  inaudible. 

(3)  Never  fail  to  take  breath  before  the  lungs  are 
entirely  exhausted ;  and  usually  keep  them  well-filled. 
This  will  generally  be  done  without  effort  in  extem- 
poraneous speaking;  but  in  recitation  and  reading  it 
requires  special  attention.  Monod  says :  "  For  this 
purpose,  it  is  necessary  to  breathe  quite  often,  and  to 
take  advantage  of  little  rests  in  the  delivery."^  A 
speaker  must  not  gasp  in  his  breath  through  the 
mouth,  but  breathe  through  the  nostrils,  regularly 
and  steadily.  He  must  keep  the  head  and  neck  in 
an  upright  posture,  for  the  sake  of  breathing  freely, 
as  well  as  for  other  reasons ;  and  there  must  be  noth- 
ing tight  around  his  throat. 

(4)  Look  frequently  at  the  remotest  hearers,  and 
see  to  it  that  they  hear  you.  If  partictilar  persons 
anywhere  in  the  room  have  grown  inattentive,  they 
may  often  be  aroused  by  quietly  aiming  the  voice  at 
them  for  a  moment. 

(5)  Let  there  be  variety :  of  pitch,  of  force,  and 
of  speed.2  Monotony  is  utterly  destructive  of  elo- 
quence. But  variety  of  utterance  must  be  gained, 
not  by  assuming  it  from  without,  but  by  taking  care 
to  have  a  real  and  marked  variety  of  sentiment,  and 
then  simply  uttering  each  particular  sentiment  in  the 
most  natural  manner.^ 

1  On  the  Delivery  of  Sermons,  p.  402. 

2  See  Mcllvaine,  on  Time  and  Pause,  p.  346  ff. 

^  Emphasis  requires  much  attention  in  reading,  and  will  be  dis- 
cussed below  in  Part  V.  In  speaking,  a  correct  emphasis  will  be 
spontaneous,  whenever  one  is  fully  in  sympathy  with  his  subject. 


ON   DELIVERY,  AS   REGARDS   VOICE.      495 

For  the  rest,  let  rules  alone,  and  think  not  about 
your  voice,  but  your  subject,  and  those  on  whom  you 
wish  to  impress  it.  Except  that  when  some  marked 
fault  has  attracted  attention,  or  been  pointed  out  by 
a  friend,  care  must  be  taken  to  avoid  it  hereafter. 

Note,  —  There  is  a  peculiar  disease,  produced  by  excessive  or 
ill-managed  use  of  the  organs  of  speech,  which  occurs  so  often  witli 
preachers  as  to  be  called  "minister's  sore-throat."  The  causes  of 
this  laryngitis  are  apparently  several:  (i)  Feeble  health  in  general, 
especially  of  the  alimentary  system.  (2)  Speaking  much  when  under 
the  influence  of  depressing  emotions,  which  tend  to  contract  the  throat. 
(3)  Speaking  when  hoarse.  (4)  Singing  when  the  organs  are  already 
fatigued  from  speaking.  (5)  Speaking  from  an  elevation,  and  so 
looking  down,  which  causes  a  bending  and  contraction  of  the  vocal 
tube  just  at  the  point  where  this  disease  arises.  (6)  It  may  be  added 
that  reading  is  much  more  injurious  to  the  throat-than  speaking,  and 
preachers,  even  when  they  do  not  read  their  sermons,  have  much 
public  reading  to  do. 

Thus  it  appears  that  preachers  are  peculiarly  liable  to  throat- 
trouble,  but  most  of  the  causes  can  be  removed  or  counteracted. 
The  symptom  which  especially  demands  care  is  a  feeling  of  fatigue 
and  feebleness  in  the  organs,  so  that  speaking,  even  before  becoming 
painful,  seems  burdensome  and  laborious.  At  any  time,  and  par- 
ticularly when  the  general  health  is  feeble,  this  symptom  imperatively 
calls  for  rest.  But  even  if  laryngitis  has  actually  occurred,  the  matter, 
while  serious,  is  not  hopeless.  Good  medical  attention,  rest,  bodily 
exercise,  travel,  and  increased  attention  to  the  laws  of  health,  will 
often  work  a  cure  in  a  few  weeks. 

It  is  very  apt  to  injure  even  a  healthy  voice,  if  it  be  much  strained 
in  very  cold  or  very  hot  air.  When  one  has  grown  quite  warm  in 
preaching,  and  goes  out  into  cold  air,  it  is  extremely  important  to 
guard  against  taking  cold,  not  so  much  by  wrapping  the  throat  as  by 
protecting  the  whole  body.  Neglect  of  this  often  produces  worse 
diseases  than  laryngitis. 


49^    ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   ACTION. 


CHAPTER   III. 

ON  DELIVERY,    AS  REGARDS  ACTION.^ 

THE  term  action  is  now  commonly  restricted  to 
what  Cicero  calls  the  sermo  corporis^  or  speech 
of  the  body,  including  expression  of  countenance, 
posture,  and  gesture,  but  not  including  the  use  of 
the  voice. 

The  freedom  and  variety  of  action  exhibited  by 
children  when  talking  to  each  other,  shows  that  it 
is  perfectly  natural.  Its  wonderful  expressiveness, 
even  apart  from  language,  is  sometimes  displayed 
by  the  deaf  and  dumb,  and  by  others  skilled  in 
pantomime.  There  is  a  familiar  story  of  a  dispute 
between  Cicero  and  Roscius,  an  actor  famous  for 
pantomime,  as  to  which  could  express  a  thought 
more  eloquently,  the  one  by  words,  or  the  other  by 
signs.  In  many  cases  a  gesture  is  much  more  ex- 
pressive than  any  number  of  words.  "How  truly 
language  must  be  regarded  as  a  hindrance  to  thought, 
though  the  necessary  instrument  of  it,  we  shall 
clearly  perceive  on  remembering  the  comparative 
force  with  which  simple  ideas  are  communicated  by 
signs.  To  say,  *  Leave  the  room, '  is  less  expressive 
than  to  point  to  the  door.  Placing  a  finger  on  the 
lips  is  more  forcible  than  whispering,  '  Do  not 
speak. '     A  beck  of  the  hand  is  better  than  *  Come 

1  On  this  subject  profitable  use  has  been  made  of  the  notes 
of  lectures  by  the  author's  esteemed  colleague,  Rev.  B.  Manly,  Jr., 
D.D.  Among  the  treatises,  Russell  is  here  best.  Pulpit  Elocution, 
PP-  346-368. 


ON    DELIVERY,   AS    REGARDS    ACTION.    497 

here.'  No  phrase  can  convey  the  idea  of  surprise 
so  vividly  as  opening  the  eyes  and  raising  the  eye- 
brows. A  shrug  of  the  shoulders  would  lose  much 
by  translation  into  words."  ^  "  He  who  is  master  of 
this  sign-language  has,  indeed,  an  almost  magic 
power.  When  the  orator  can  combine  it  with  the 
spoken  language,  he  acquires  thereby  exceeding 
vivacity  of  expression.  Not  only  his  mouth,  but  his 
eyes,  his  features,  his  fingers,  speak.  The  hearers 
read  the  coming  sentiment  upon  his  countenance 
and  limbs  almost  before  his  voice  reaches  their  ears : 
they  are  both  spectators  and  listeners;  every  sense 
is  absorbed  in  charmed  attention.  "^  It  was  said  of 
Cicero  that  there  was  eloquence  even  in  the  tips  of 
his  fingers,  and  of  Garrick  that  by  merely  moving 
his  elbow  he  could  produce  an  effect  that  no  words 
could  achieve.^ 

How  happens  it  that  the  man  has  so  often  lost  this 
wonderful  power,  which  the  child  possessed.?  In 
some  cases  he  has  been  hardened,  even  in  early  man- 
hood, by  the  too  fierce  struggle  of  life,  and  has  lost 
the  fresh  and  lively  feeling  of  childhood.  In  most 
cases  he  has  become  constrained  and  self-conscious, 
no  longer  forgetting  himself,  as  the  child  did,  in 
the  subject  he  speaks  of,  and  whether  he  be  timid 
or  vain,  his  manner  is  of  necessity  unnatural  and 
awkward.  Thiers  was  at  first,  in  his  speaking  in 
the  French  Assembly,  vehement,  oratorical  —  and 
laughed  at.  Talleyrand  said,  "Why don't  you  speak 
in  the  tribune  as  you  do  in  the  salon?''  Thiers  took 
the  hint,  adopted  an  easy,  colloquial  manner,  and 
became  a  great  power  in  debate.     Action   is   true 

1  Herbert  Spencer  on  Style,  p.  11.  Quintilian  (XI.  3)  compares 
also  the  impression  made  on  us  by  pictures. 

2  Dabney's  Sac.  Rhet.  p.  323. 

8  W.  G.  Blaikie,  For  the  Work  of  the  Ministry,  p.  234. 
32 


498    ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   ACTION. 

only  when  it  is  spontaneous,  and  for  the  moment 
almost  unconscious.  Even  the  child  becomes  con- 
strained as  soon  as  it  is  aware  of  being  observed ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  shyest  or  most  conceited 
man,  if  his  whole  soul  be  absorbed  in  his  subject, 
and  himself  for  the  time  forgotten,  again  grows  free 
and  expressive  in  action, —  so  far,  at  least,  as  bad 
habits  will  now  permit.  And  besides  all  this,  there 
has  sometimes  been  the  influence  of  wrong  notions 
about  action,  learned  from  unwise  teachers  or  from 
casual  talk. 

How  then  shall  the  preacher,  in  this  resp'ect  also, 
"be  as  the  little  children  " .?  He  must  cultivate  his 
religious  sensibilities,  and  a  realizing  faith.  He 
must  prayerfully  seek  to  care  more  for  his  sacred 
themes,  and  less  for  himself  —  to  keep  the  thought 
of  self  habitually  and  thoroughly  subordinate  to  the 
thought  of  saving  souls,  and  glorifying  the  Redeemer. 
He  must  remember  that  he  himself,  as  the  Creator 
made  him,  is  called  to  preach  the  gospel;  and  that 
with  his  individuality  unimpaired,  while  faculties 
are  developed  and  faults  corrected,  he  is  to  do  the 
work  to  him  appointed.  Then,  thoroughly  possessed 
with  his  subject,  lifted  above  the  fear  of  man,  and 
kindled  into  zeal  for  usefulness,  let  him  speak  out 
what  he  thinks  and  feels.  No  doubt  he  will  make 
some  blunders;  but  what  of  that.!*  A  child  can 
never  learn  to  walk,  without  sometimes  falling. 
But  the  child  will  not  keep  on  falling  the  same  way; 
and  so  the  speaker's  blunders  may  teach  him  some- 
thing. Though  probably  not  aware  of  them  at  the 
time,  because  too  busy  with  higher  things,  he  may 
recall  afterwards  his  faults  of  action,  or  may  be  told 
of  them  by  some  kindly,  or  perhaps  some  unkind 
critic,  —  and  next  time  he  will  notice  a  little,  and 
coi'ie^t  or  avoid  them. 


ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   ACTION.    499 

Some  men  have  naturally  much  more  action  than 
others.  And  so  with  races,  and  men  of  the  same 
race  in  different  regions.  The  more  excitable 
nations,  as  the  French,  gesticulate  almost  con- 
stantly; the  English  comparatively  little.  On  this 
subject  English  writers  should  not  be  heeded  by 
us ;  ^  for  Americans  are  naturally  more  ardent  and 
excitable,  more  inclined  to  free  and  varied  gesture, 
than  the  English.  And  the  same  man  will  have 
more  or  less  action,  according  to  his  physical  con- 
dition and  the  mood  he  is  in,  as  well  as  according 
to  the  subject  and  the  circumstances.  Trust,  then, 
to  spontaneous  impulse.  Do  not  repress  nature, 
save  where  particular  faults  present  themselves. 
And  never  force  nature ;  for  action  is  not  indispen- 
sable, while  unnatural  action  would  be  injurious. 
Robert  Hall  had  usually  not  much  gesture,  though 
his  expression  of  countenance  was  remarkable. 
Spurgeon  had  nothing  very  striking  in  his  action, 
but  an  extraordinary  voice.  On  the  other  hand, 
"there  is  an  oaken  desk  shown  at  Eisenach,  which 
Luther  broke  with  his  fist  in  preaching;  "  ^  and  the 
Apostle  Paul  appears  to  have  had  a  peculiar  and 
impressive  manner  of  stretching  forth  his  hand.  Do, 
then,  what  is  natural  with  you,  and  at  the  time. 
Have  much  or  little  action,  of  this  sort  or  of  that. 
And  always  remember  that  you  are  not  engaged  in 
a  tournament,  but  in  a  battle  —  that  your  great  con- 
cern is  not  to  keep  within  rules,  but  to  conquer. 

It  has  been  remarked  above  that  action,  the 
"speech  of  the  body,"  includes  several  distinct 
things. 

1  For  example,  Whately,  p.  443,  says :  "  Action  is  hardly  to  be 
reckoned  as  any  part  of  the  orator's  art."  Similarly,  a  writer  in  the 
London  Quarterly,  October,  1873.  See  also  Addison  in  the  Spectator, 
No.  407  (Hervey,  p.  573). 

*  Hoppin,  p.  667. 


500    ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   ACTION. 

(i)  Expression  of  countenance  has  great  power. 
"  But  especially  dominant  is  the  countenance.  With 
this  we  supplicate,  threaten,  or  soothe,  with  this  we 
are  sad  or  joyous,  elated  or  dejected;  on  this  the 
people  hang,  this  they  look  at  and  study,  even  before 
we  speak  .  .  .  this  is  often  superior  to  all  words.  "^ 
With  the  exception,  however,  of  one  feature,  expres- 
sion of  countenance  is  almost  involuntary,  and  little 
can  be  done  in  the  way  of  improvement  beyond  the 
correction  of  faults.  When  a  man  is  possessed  with 
his  subject,  and  thoroughly  subordinates  all  thought 
of  self,  his  countenance  will  spontaneously  assume 
every  appropriate  expression. 

But  the  exception  is  notable.  Cicero  says:  "In 
delivery,  next  to  the  voice  in  effectiveness  is  the 
countenance;  and  this  is  ruled  over  by  the  eyes."'^ 
"The  expressive  power  of  the  human  eye  is  so  great 
that  it  determines,  in  a  manner,  the  expression  of 
the  whole  countenance.  It  is  almost  impossible  to 
disguise  it.  It  is  said  that  gamblers  rely  more  upon 
the  study  of  the  eye,  to  discover  the  state  of  their 
opponents'  game,  than  upon  any  other  means.  Even 
animals  are  susceptible  of  its  power.  The  dog 
watches  the  eyes  of  his  master,  and  discovers  from 
them,  before  a  word  is  spoken,  whether  he  is  to 
expect  a  caress,  or  apprehend  chastisement.  It  is 
said  that  the  lion  cannot  attack  a  man  so  long  as  the 
man  looks  him  steadily  in  the  eyes.  .  .  .  All  the 
passions  and  emotions  of  the  human  heart,  in  all 
their  degrees  and  interworkings  with  each  other, 
express  themselves,  with  the  utmost  fulness  and 
power,  in  the  eyes."  ^  Now  the  eyes  we  can  in  some 
respects  control.  We  cannot  by  a  volition  make 
them  blaze,  or  glisten,  or  melt;  but  we  can  always 
look  at  the  hearers.     And  the  importance  of  this  it 

1  Quint.  XI.  iii.  72.       2  Dg  Or.  III.  59.       s  Mcllvaine,  p.  400. 


ON   DELIVERY,   AS    REGARDS   ACTION.     501 

would  be  difficult  to  overstate.  Besides  the  direct 
power  which  the  speaker's  eye  has  over  the  audi- 
ence, penetrating  their  very  soul  with  its  glance,  it 
is  by  looking  that  he  catches  their  expression  of 
countenance,  and  enters  into  living  sympathy  with 
them.  We  have  before  remarked  upon  the  sustain- 
ing and  stimulating  power  of  sympathy  in  the  audi- 
ence.^ He  who  does  not  feel  helped  by  this,  and 
does  not  greatly  miss  it  when  wanting,  was  not  born 
to  be  a  public  speaker,  or  has  strangely  perverted  his 
nature  by  wrong  notions  and  bad  methods.  And  in 
addition  to  the  involuntary  effect  upon  the  speaker 
of  seeing  the  countenances  of  his  hearers,  he  can 
watch  the  effect  produced,  and  purposely  adapt  his 
thoughts,  style,  and  manner  to  their  condition  at  the 
moment. 

If  a  man  feels  as  he  should,  his  look  at  the  out- 
set will  be  respectful  without  timidity,  independent 
without  defiance  or  conceit,  and  solemn  without 
sanctimoniousness,  and  then  will  spontaneously 
change  its  character  with  every  variation  of  feeling. 

(2)  Posture  also  is  important.  In  walking,  stand- 
ing, sitting,  riding,  one  should  take  pains  to  acquire 
habitual  uprightness  and  ease;  and  then  in  public 
speaking  there  will  be  little  danger  of  his  assuming 
any  other  than  an  appropriate  posture.  But  there 
are  various  faults  which,  through  lack  of  such  habits, 
or  from  mistaken  views  of  oratory  or  wrong  feel- 
ings at  the  time  of  speaking,  many  persons  exhibit. 
Quintilian  and  later  writers  give  warning  as  to  these, 
and  some  of  them  ought  to  be  mentioned. 

Among  the  commonest  faults  of  preachers  is  lean- 

1  Introd.  §  I.  Comp.  also  Part  IV.  chap.  i.  §  2  (/),  upon  the  great 
advantage  which  an  extemporaneous  speaker  has  in  the  freedom  of 
the  eye.  Mcllvaine,  p.  103  ff.,  states  very  strongly  the  value  of 
sympathy  in  public  speaking. 


502    OF   DELIVERY,  AS    REGARDS   ACTION. 

ing  on  the  pulpit.  All  inexperienced  speakers  are 
apt,  feeling  ill  at  ease,  to  have  a  tottering  equilib- 
rium, and  to  look  for  something  with  which  they 
may  prop  themselves.  The  pulpit  is  so  convenient 
for  this  purpose,  that  we  need  not  wonder  if  a  habit 
of  leaning  on  it  is  often  formed.  When  a  young 
preacher  finds  himself  inclined  to  this,  he  should 
not  only  resist  the  tendency  while  in  the  pulpit,  but 
should  take  pains  in  social  meetings,  Sunday-school 
speaking,  etc.,  to  stand  out  with  nothing  before 
him.  A  few  early  experiences  will  rapidly  form  a 
habit,  good  or  bad. 

The  body  should  be  simply  erect.  A  slight  incli- 
nation of  the  head  at  the  opening  is  with  most  men 
a  natural  expression  of  deference  for  the  audience, 
but  it  must  be  very  slight,  and  will  disappear  as  the 
preacher  grows  more  animated.  An  habitual  stoop 
is  a  grave  fault,  both  because  unsightly,  and  because 
hurtful  to  the  organs  of  speech,  and  should  be 
corrected  if  possible;  with  a  few  men  it  is  natural 
and  invincible.  To  "rear  back,"  as  some  do,  sug- 
gests, though  it  be  unjustly,  the  idea  of  arrogance 
or  conceit. 

The  arms  should  at  first  hang  quietly  by  the  side. 
To  fold  them  on  the  breast  is  a  gesture  expressive 
of  peculiar  sentiments,  and  to  be  rarely  used.  To 
place  the  hands  on  the  hips,  if  with  the  fingers  for- 
ward, seems  to  indicate  a  sort  of  pert  defiance;  if 
with  the  fingers  backward,  it  suggests  weakness  in 
the  back.  To  clasp  the  hands  over  the  abdomen  is 
offensive,  and  to  clasp  the  hands  behind  the  back, 
though  not  offensive,  is  scarcely  graceful,  particu- 
larly if  they  are  placed  under  the  coat-skirts.  To 
put  them  in  the  coat  pockets  is  inelegant,  and  in 
the  trousers'  pockets  is  vulgar.  To  stand,  as  many 
do,  with  one  hand  in  the  bosom,  or  to  occupy  one 


ON   DELIVERY,  AS   REGARDS   ACTION.     503 

hand  in  playing  with  a  watch-key  or  guard,  or  with 
coat-buttons,  etc.  (Andrew  Fuller's  practice),  is  in 
a  greater  or  less  degree  undesirable.  It  is  natural 
that  the  arms  should  at  first  hang  easily  by  the  side 
(with  the  palm  towards  the  body),  until  there  is 
occasion  to  move  one  or  both  in  gesticulation,  and 
that  after  any  gesture  they  should  tend  back  to  the 
same  position,  though  in  many  cases  they  remain  for 
awhile  in  some  intermediate  position  of  comparative 
repose. 

The  feet  should  neither  be  far  apart,  like  a  sailor's, 
nor  in  immediate  contact.  Their  precise  position  will 
be  determined  by  the  man's  form  and  habits,  and 
rules  laying  down  one  particular  posture  should  be 
rejected.  The  Roman  orator  commonly  stood  with 
the  left  foot  forward,  because  he  bore  up  the  toga  on 
his  left  arm,  and  the  ancient  soldier  advanced  the 
left  foot,  because  his  left  arm  carried  the  shield. 
No  similar  causes  now  exist  for  regularly  advancing 
the  left  foot.^  The  only  ground  of  choice  would 
seem  to  be,  that  if  one  hand  is  at  any  time  actively 
used  in  gesticulating,  it  seems  natural  and  easier  to 
have  the  corresponding  foot  thrown  somewhat  for- 
ward. How  often  a  speaker  is  to  change  posture 
will  depend  on  his  temperament  and  his  excitement 
at  the  time;  one  need  scarcely  give  himself  any  con- 
cern on  that  point,  unless  he  happens  to  be  inclined 
to  a  restless,  fidgety  movement,  which  is  of  course 
to  be  avoided.  We  must  beware  of  "striking  an 
attitude,"  like  Corporal  Trim,  and  many  another 
would-be  orator. 

He  who  finds  himself  inclined  to  any  of  these 

faults,  ought  resolutely  to  correct  them,  carefully  to 

guard  against  them.     The  only  real  difficulty  about 

correcting  such  comparatively  trifling  faults  is  that 

1  Russell's  Pulpit  Elocution,  p.  357. 


504    ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   ACTION. 

men  will  not  think  them  worth  the  trouble.  But 
nothing  that  at  all  affects  a  preacher's  usefulness 
is  really  trifling.  The  young  need  have  but  little 
trouble  in  curing  these  bad  habits ;  and  for  those  of 
middle  age  it  is  still  entirely  possible.  Resolute 
determination,  with  perseverance,  and  especially  care 
to  form  counter  habits  when  out  of  the  pulpit,  will 
commonly  triumph.  If  such  defects  really  cannot 
be  remedied,  one  must  try  not  to  be  worried  about 
them,  but  to  do  his  best  notwithstanding. 

(3)  Gesture  —  when  we  have  excluded  posture  — 
denotes  movement,  whether  of  the  whole  person,  the 
feet,  the  body,  the  head,  or  the  hands.  It  is  not 
natural  for  a  speaker,  if  at  all  animated,  to  stand 
perfectly  still,  and  it  is  important  not  to  fidget 
about,  nor  to  walk  the  platform  like  a  tiger  in  his 
cage.  Between  these  extremes,  a  man  will  change 
place  more  or  less  freely  according  to  temperament, 
circumstances,  and  taste.  To  stamp  with  the  foot, 
may  sometimes  naturally  express  indignation  or  cer- 
tain other  vehement  feelings,  but  it  is  apt  to  suggest 
an  impotent  rage ;  and  at  any  rate  it  is  scarcely  ever 
becoming  in  a  preacher.  Movements  of  the  body, 
such  as  rocking  to  and  fro,  or  swaying  from  side  to 
side,  are  almost  always  to  be  avoided,  and  bending 
far  forward  is  very  rarely  proper.  The  head  has  a 
variety  of  appropriate  and  expressive  movements, 
but  one  must  beware  of  awkwardness,  extreme  vehe- 
mence, and  monotony. 

The  arms  and  hands  have  to  be  considered  to- 
gether, because  in  public  speaking  there  can  be 
scarcely  any  gesture  with  the  hand  that  is  not  nat- 
urally accompanied  by  some  movement  of  the  arm. 
Thus  either  may  be  taken  as  representing  both. 
The  Greeks  comprehended  the  whole  art  of  elocution 
under  the  term  chironomy,   or  management  of  the 


ON   DELIVERY,  AS   REGARDS   ACTION.     505 

hands.  ^  Certainly  the  hands  and  arms  are  in  gesture 
of  unequalled  importance.  Quintilian  says:  "As  to 
the  hands,  without  which  delivery  would  be  muti- 
lated and  feeble,  it  can  scarcely  be  said  how  many 
movements  they  have,  when  they  almost  equal  the 
number  of  words.  For  other  parts  of  the  person  help 
the  speaker;  these,  I  might  almost  say,  speak  them- 
selves. "^  But  many  speakers  are  greatly  at  a  loss 
what  to  do  with  their  hands,^  and  a  similar  difficulty 
is  often  betrayed  in  the  parlor  and  on  the  street. 
Gresley  here  points  out  an  advantage  of  reading  ser- 
mons :  "  The  extemporaneous  preacher  .  .  .  must  find 
employment  for  his  hands.  But  when  you  have  your 
sermon  written  before  you,  your  hands  are  occasion- 
ally used  in  turning  over  the  leaves  of  the  manu- 
script,"* and  so  the  reader,  fortunate  man,  is  not 
compelled  to  gesticulate. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  catalogue  the  faults  which 
may  be  observed  in  gesture  with  the  hand  and  arm. 
Among  the  commonest  are  a  fluttering  of  the  hands, 
which  with  some  persons  becomes  a  marked  habit ; 
a  shoving  motion,  which  is  appropriate  to  express 
abhorrence,  or  any  repulsion,  but  not  otherwise;  and 
a  sort  of  boxing  movement.  Some  work  the  arm  up 
and  down,  like  a  pump  handle,  and  others  flap  the 
fore-arm  only,  like  a  penguin's  wings,  instead  of 
moving  the  arm  from  the  shoulder,  with  the  free 
action  which  public  speaking  naturally  prompts. 
Angular  movements  are  appropriate  to  certain  sen- 
timents, but  as  habitual,  are  very  awkward.  The 
palm  of  the  hand,  as  its  most  expressive  part,  should 
in  general  be  turned  towards  the  audience,  and  some- 
what expanded.  "  Yet  how  often  we  see  the  hand 
of  the  speaker  held  out  flat  and  close,  like  a  piece  of 

1  Russell,  p.  360.  2  Quint.  XI.  iii.  85. 

*  Comp.  above,  as  to  posture.        *  Gresley  on  Preaching,  p.  283. 


$06    ON   DELIVERY,   AS    REGARDS   ACTION. 

board,  or  edgewise,  like  a  chopping  knife,  or  feebly 
hollowed,  like  that  of  a  beggar,  receiving  alms. 
Sometimes,  on  the  contrary,  we  see  it  clinched  in  a 
style  which  calls  up  the  associations  of  smiting  with 
the  fist  of  wickedness.  "1  The  clenched  hand,  the 
pointed  fore-finger,  etc.,  are  very  effective  when 
their  peculiar  meaning  is  wanted,  and  otherwise  are 
proportionally  inappropriate  and  damaging.  It  is 
also  a  common  fault  to  bring  down  the  hand  with  a 
slap  on  the  thigh,  a  movement  necessarily  ungrace- 
ful, or  to  slap  the  hands  frequently  together,  which 
is  very  rarely  appropriate;  and  some  preachers  have 
quite  a  trick  of  banging  the  Bible. 

In  all  the  employments  and  circumstances  of  life, 
let  the  speaker  see  to  it  that  his  bearing  shall  be 
free,  unconstrained,  and  not  ungraceful.  Then  in 
speaking  he  will  have  little  occasion  to  think  of 
posture  or  gesture,  and  may  follow,  without  fear, 
the  promptings  of  nature.  In  general,  one  should 
never  repress  a  movement  to  which  he  is  inclined, 
because  afraid  it  may  not  be  graceful.  After  all, 
life  and  power  are  far  more  important  than  grace; 
and,  in  fact,  timid  self-repression  destroys  grace 
itself.  On  the  other  hand,  never  make  any  gesture 
from  calculation.  It  must  be  the  spontaneous  product 
of  present  feeling,  or  it  is  unnatural,  and  has  but  a 
galvanized  life.  He  who  declaims  or  even  thinks 
over  his  address  beforehand,  and  arranges  that  here 
or  there  he  will  make  such  or  such  a  gesture,  will 
inevitably  mar  his  delivery  at  that  point  by  a  fault, 
were  he  Edward  Everett  himself.  It  is  inexpres- 
sibly foolish,  though  actually  done  by  some  teachers 
of  elocution,  to  be  determining  how  many  sentences 
may  be  uttered  before  the  first  gesture.  It  is  utterly 
unwise  to  begin  gesticulating  at  any  point  from  the 
1  Russell,  p.  360. 


ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   ACTION.     507 

notion  that  it  is  now  time  to  begin.  The  time  to 
begin  is  when  one  feels  like  beginning,  neither 
sooner  nor  later.  A  sermon  or  other  speech  ought 
usually  to  open  quietly,  and  therefore  there  will 
usually  be  no  gestures  just  at  the  outset. 

(4)  A  few  simple  rules  may  be  added,  with  regard 
to  action  of  every  kind. 

(a)  Action  should  be  suggestive  rather  than  imi- 
tative. Closely  imitative  gestures,  except  in  the 
case  of  certain  dignified  actions,  are  unsuitable  to 
grave  discourse,  and  belong  rather  to  comedy.  In 
saying,  "he  stabbed  him  to  the  heart,"  one  will 
make  some  vehement  movement  of  the  hand,  sug- 
gestive of  the  mortal  blow;  a  movement  imitating 
it,  would  be  ridiculous,  comic.  A  really  good  man, 
in  preaching  at  a  University,  once  said:  "You  shut 
your  eyes  to  the  beauty  of  piety ;  you  stop  your  ears 
to  the  calls  of  the  gospel;  you  turn  your  back,"  etc., 
and  in  saying  it,  shut  his  eyes,  stopped  his  ears  with 
his  fingers,  and  whirled  his  broad  back  into  view. 
Alas !  for  the  good  done  to  the  students  by  his  well- 
meant  sermon.  In  "  suiting  the  action  to  the  word," 
he  "o'erstepped  the  modesty  of  nature."  Even  lift- 
ing the  eyes  toward  heaven,  or  pointing  the  finger 
toward  it,  or  pressing  the  hand  upon  the  heart,  etc., 
though  allowable,  are  sometimes  carried  too  far,  or 
too  often  repeated. 

(b)  Gesture  must  never  follow,  and  commonly 
must  slightly  precede,  the  emphatic  word  of  the 
sentence.^  It  seems  to  be  natural  that  excited  feel- 
ing should  find  a  more  prompt  expression  in  the 
instinctive  movement,  than  in  speech,  which  is  the 
product  of  reflection.  In  argumentative  speaking, 
the  gesture  will  naturally  come  with  the  emphatic 
word.  2 

1  Whately,  p.  445.  ^  Comp.  Hervey,  p.  575- 


508    ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   ACTION. 

(c)  Action  must  not  be  excessive,  in  frequency 
or  in  vehemence.  To  some  subjects,  occasions,  or 
states  of  feeling  in  the  speaker,  it  is  natural  that 
the  action  should  be  rare  and  slight.  Too  frequent 
gesture,  like  italics  in  writing  and  emphasis  in 
speaking,  gradually  weakens  its  own  effect.  Ex- 
treme vehemence  produces  a  revulsion  of  feeling  in 
the  hearer,  a  tendency  to  just  the  opposite  of  what 
the  speaker  desires.  Hamlet  says  to  the  players: 
"  Do  not  saw  the  air  too  much  with  your  hand  thus, 
but  use  all  gently :  for  in  the  very  torrent,  tempest, 
and  (as  I  may  say)  whirlwind  of  your  passion,  you 
must  acquire  and  beget  a  temperance  that  may  give 
it  smoothness." 

(d)  Avoid  monotony.  A  certain  unvarying  round 
of  postures  and  gestures,  again  and  again  repeated, 
is  a  somewhat  common,  and  most  grievous  fault. 
Akin  to  it,  though  not  yet  so  offensive,  is  the  use, 
from  mere  habit,  of  some  favorite  gesture,  when  the 
emotion  felt  would  be  better  expressed  by  some 
other.  The  noticeably  frequent  recurrence  of  a 
word,  a  tone,  or  a  gesture,  is  always  a  fault,  and  as 
soon  as  one  becomes  aware  of  it,  should  be  carefully 
avoided.  1 

In  conclusion,  it  is  proper  to  repeat  that  at  all 
hazards  there  must  be  life,  freedom,  power.  Do  not 
repress  nature,  though  it  must  be  governed;  and  do 
not  force  nature.  Aim  not  at  positive  improvement 
in  action,  but  negative  —  the  correction  of  faults  as 
they  appear.  Look  out  for  such  faults.  Now  and 
then  ask  some  true  and  very  judicious  friend  to 
apprise  you  of  such  as  may  have  struck  him;  and 
no  one  can  be  in  this  respect  so  helpful  as  an  intel- 
ligent wife.  Speak  out  freely  and  boldly  what  you 
feel.     A  man  can  never  learn  to  perform  any  move- 

^  Comp.  as  to  variety  of  expression.  Part  III.  chap,  iv.,  end. 


ON   DELIVERY,   AS   REGARDS   ACTION.     509 

merit  gracefully  save  by  performing  it  frequently 
and  with  great  freedom.  The  vine  must  grow,  or 
you  cannot  prune  it.  And  let  us  not  forget  that 
even  some  of  a  man's  faults,  in  action  and  in  voice, 
may  be  a  part  of  himself.  Correct  them  wherever 
possible;  but  better  let  them  remain,  than  be  suc- 
ceeded either  by  artificiality  or  by  tameness. 


#art  V. 

CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 


§  I.  Reading  Scripture. 

2.  Hymns. 

3.  Public  Prayer. 


§  4.  Length  of  Services. 

5.  Pulpit  Decorum. 

6.  Concluding  Remarks. 


A  TENDENCY  may  often  be  observed  in  our 
religious  assemblies  to  neglect  the  worship, 
and  think  only  of  the  preaching.  Indeed,  we  fre- 
quently hear  good  men  speak  of  Xho^  preliminary  txQX- 
cises.  The  devout  reading  of  God's  Word,  sweet 
hymns  of  praise,  and  "prayer  and  supplication,  with 
thanksgiving" — these,  we  must  understand,  are  of 
no  great  importance,  only  the  porch,  the  threshold ! 
Straws  show  which  way  the  wind  blows,  and  the 
very  form  of  public  notices  is  here  instructive. 
"Divine  service  will  be  held  at  St.  Mark's  Church, 

on  next,"  etc.     "The  Rev. will  preach  at 

the  Baptist  (Presbyterian,  Methodist,  etc.)  Church, 
on  next,"  etc.  The  Episcopal  notice  mentions  only 
the  service.  The  others  mention  only  the  preach- 
ing, and  rarely  fail  to  say  who  is  to  preach.  Accord- 
ingly, Highchurchmen  usually  care  little  for  the 
sermon,  being  mainly  concerned  that  it  should  be 
suitably  short;  though  evangelical  Episcopalians  lay 
much  greater  stress  on  preaching,  and  are  often 
anxious  for  some  liberty  of  omission  in  the  service. 
The  other  denominations  mentioned  too  generally 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  511 

think  little  of  the  service,  the  worship.  Some  per- 
sons among  them,  dissatisfied  with  the  felt  lack  of 
interest,  imagine  that  there  is  no  remedy  save  in 
having  a  "form  of  worship,"  or  some  approach  to 
it;  and  accordingly  one  meets  now  and  then  with 
a  Sunday-school  or  congregation  reading  alternate 
verses,  or  engaged  in  choral  responses,  etc.,  — some 
"  entering  wedge  "  for  other  things. 

But  the  remedy  lies  elsewhere.  The  freedom, 
spontaneity,  simplicity,  spirituality,  of  New  Testa- 
ment worship  must  be  maintained  at  all  costs.  The 
natural  tendency  of  the  human  heart  to  make  much 
of  externals  while  devoid  of  spirituality,  must  by  all 
means  be  resisted.  So  far  as  it  is  lack  of  devo- 
tional feeling  on  their  part  that  makes  men  weary 
of  informal  modes  of  worship,  so  far  we  must  beware 
of  yielding.  But  the  dissatisfaction  is  often  caused, 
at  least  in  part,  by  the  coldness,  lack  of  animation, 
want  of  connection,  and  general  slovenliness  which 
in  so  many  cases  mark  our  worship.  We  must  pay 
far  more  attention  to  this  than  is  common,  both  in 
the  way  of  general  cultivation  and  of  preparation  for 
each  particular  occasion.  This  is  less  necessary  for 
those  who  have  only  to  go  through  a  form  of  service 
prepared  by  others,  than  for  him  who,  on  every  sep- 
arate occasion,  is  required  to  produce  a  service,  for 
himself  and  for  the  congregation.  Thoroughly  simple 
in  form,  so  as  not  to  encourage  the  people  to  rest  in 
externals,  but  full  of  interest,  animation,  devout- 
ness,  solemn  sweetness,  and  with  a  specific  but 
inelaborate  adaptation  to  the  occasion, —  such  should 
be  our  worship.  That  which  is  not  interesting  and 
impressive  cannot  be  the  full  expression  of  warm 
devotion,  and  then  the  expression,  by  a  general  law, 
reacts  upon  the  feeling.  Externals,  however  they 
may  appeal  to  aesthetic  sentiment,  can  never  create 


512  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

devotion;  but  animated  and  earnest  expression  will 
strengthen  devotion,  and  this  may  be  achieved  while 
carefully  avoiding  the  danger  of  formalism. 

It  is  therefore  deemed  important  to  speak  of  the 
preacher's  part  in  the  conduct  of  public  worship. 
This  can  only  be  done  very  briefly  here,  though  the 
subject  deserves  minute  discussion,  and,  in  fact,  a 
separate  treatise.  ^ 

§  I.    READING  SCRIPTURE. 

(i)  In  selecting  the  portion  or  portions  of  Scripture 
to  be  read,  we  should  prefer  such  as  are  in  a  high 
degree  devotional ;  for  example,  many  of  the  Psalms, 
passages  from  the  Pentateuch,  from  Isaiah  and  other 
Prophets,  from  the  Gospels,  Epistles,  and  Revela- 
tion. These  will  not  only  instruct,  but  will  awaken 
devout  feeling.  The  reading  of  them  will  naturally 
precede  the  principal  prayer,  whether  immediately, 
or  with  the  intervention  of  a  hymn.  The  particular 
kind  of  devotional  passages  selected,  and  the  general 
tone  of  the  sermon,  should  harmonize.  To  read  a 
mournful  passage,  and  afterward  preach  a  joyful  ser- 
mon, or  vice  versa,  would  be  inappropriate.  Still, 
a  general  harmony  is  sufficient;  great  effort  to 
find  an  exact  correspondence  is  unnecessary,  if  not 
unbecoming. 

But  there  are  many  cases  in  which  the  preacher 
wishes  to  read  the  connection  of  his  text.  If  this 
connection  is  highly  devotional  in  tone,  it  may  be 

1  The  pastor's  management  as  to  the  whole  ordering  of  public 
worship,  belongs  properly  to  works  on  Pastoral  Duties ;  but  the  part 
which  he  himself  performs,  stands  in  immediate  and  almost  insep- 
arable connection  with  his  work  as  a  preacher,  and  may  be  regarded 
either  as  pertaining  to  Homiletics,  or  to  the  pastoral  work  in  general. 
The  best  discussions  are  those  of  Hoppin,  Shedd,  and  the  German 
writers.     See  below  for  works  on  Hymns,  and  on  Public  Prayer. 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  513 

read  at  the  usual  point,  as  a  part  of  the  worship.  If 
not,  it  should  be  read  after  the  principal  prayer, 
either  before  the  second  hymn  or  when  announcing 
the  text.  In  this  case  it  is  often  well  to  read  before 
the  prayer  some  brief  devotional  passage,  as  a  few 
verses  from  a  psalm.  Sometimes  two  different  pas- 
sages may  be  read  in  immediate  succession.  In  all 
these  details  there  is  large  liberty,  and  one  need  be 
no  more  bound  by  custom  than  by  rubric.  Good 
taste  and  devout  feeling  should  govern,  and  there 
may  be  an  interesting  variety,  without  seeking  after 
novelty.  A  good  effect  is  sometimes  produced  by 
reading  the  connection  of  the  text  when  just  closing 
the  sermon.  In  very  many  cases  it  is  best  not  to 
read  the  connection  at  all,  but  to  make  a  summary 
statement  of  it  in  opening  the  discourse. 

The  passages  selected  need  not  begin  or  end  with 
a  chapter.  Some  preachers  seem  to  feel  bound  to 
read  a  whole  chapter,  however  long,  and  only  a 
chapter,  however  short.  We  have  heretofore  seen^ 
that  the  current  division  into  chapters  is  awkwardly 
made,  often  uniting  matters  which  are  wholly  dis- 
tinct, and  dividing  where  there  is  a  close  connection. 
By  quietly  disregarding  them  whenever  the  sense 
requires,  a  preacher  will  help  the  effect  of  the  ser- 
vice, and  will  accustom  his  hearers  to  look  out  for 
the  real  connection,  in  their  own  reading. 

If  the  passage  proposed  contains  expressions  which 
now  and  to  us  seem  indelicate,  it  may  be  either  ex- 
changed for  another,  or  the  portions  in  question 
omitted,  where  that  can  be  done  without  attracting 
attention,  and  without  material  loss.  In  general 
such  expressions  should  be  read,  and  if  so,  then 
without  the  slightest  hesitation,  reserve,  or  mani- 
festation of  feeling.     The  beautiful  air  of  uncon- 

1  Comp.  Part  I.  chap.  ii.  §  2. 
33 


514  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC  WORSHIP. 

sciousness  seen  in  a  refined  woman,  when  she  is  led 
to  hear  or  see  something  indelicate,  is  in  all  such 
cases  the  best  model. 

(2)  To  read  well,  is  a  rare  accomplishment.  It  is 
much  more  common  to  excel  in  singing,  or  in  public 
speaking.  Good  preachers  are  numerous,  compared 
with  good  readers.  The  requisites  to  good  reading 
are  several.  First,  one  must  have  great  quickness 
of  apprehension,  seizing  the  meaning  of  whole  sen- 
tences at  a  glance ;  for  one  of  the  commonest  faults 
is  to  begin  reading  a  sentence  with  an  expression 
which  does  not  accord  with  its  close;  and  in  fact, 
the  reader  must  throughout  keep  clearly  in  mind  the 
entire  connection,  and  read  every  sentence  as  part  of 
a  greater  whole.  This  also  shows  the  need  of  a 
familiar  acquaintance  with  what  is  read,  and  if  not 
with  the  language  of  the  passage,  at  any  rate  with 
its  subject-matter.  A  second  requisite  is  sensibility, 
so  as  not  only  to  understand,  but  promptly  and  thor- 
oughly to  sympathize  with  the  sentiment.  Probably 
this  is  oftener  wanting  than  the  former.  There  must 
also  be  great  flexibility  of  voice,  so  as  at  once  and 
exactly  to  express  every  varying  shade  of  feeling. 
And  finally,  it  requires  ample  and  careful  practice. 
But  very  few  persons  practise  reading  much  at  the 
critical  period  of  life.  In  childhood,  knowledge  is 
too  limited,  the  voice  has  too  little  power,  and  the 
details  of  pronunciation,  etc.,  require  too  much 
attention,  to  admit  of  thoroughly  good  reading. 
Just  at  the  time  of  opening  maturity,  when  the  mind 
is  developed  in  strength  and  quick  in  its  grasp,  when 
the  sympathies  are  wide  and  still  sensitive,  when 
the  voice  has  reached  nearly  its  full  power  and  lost 
nothing  of  its  flexibility,  ought  there  to  be  thorough 
training,  whether  with  or  without  instruction,  in  the 
noble  art  of  reading.     Careful  exercise  in  reading 


CONDUCT    OF    PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  515 

ought  to  close  the  course  of  College  study.  If  at 
College  commencements,  instead  of  the  inevitable 
speech,  we  could  hear  some  graduates  read  —  not 
with  elocutionary  display,  and  half-acting  tricks, 
but  simple,  manly,  genuine  reading  —  it  would  be 
a  pleasure  and  a  profit  to  all  concerned.  A  Read- 
ing Club  in  a  village,  especially  if  it  includes  both 
sexes, ^  will  often  be  more  profitable  than  a  debating 
society.  Instruction  in  reading  is  less  hazardous 
than  in  public  speaking,  because  the  former  is  to 
some  extent  necessarily  an  artificial  thing,  and  in 
reading  there  is  somewhat  less  danger  of  corrupting 
nature  and  falling  into  wretched  affectations. 

He  who  reads  well,  must  of  course  be  a  master  of 
correct  pronunciation,2and  must  have  acquired  a  dis- 
tinct and  easy  articulation.  Beyond  these,  every- 
thing is  included  in  what  we  call  expression;  and 
power  of  expression,  so  far  as  it  is  not  a  natural  gift, 
must  be  acquired  by  well-ordered  practice.  The 
practice  ought  usually  to  be  in  reading  that  with 
which  one  is  well  acquainted,  and  in  full  sympathy. 
Besides  such  reading  for  practice,  he  should  embrace 
every  fit  occasion  of  reading  for  the  pleasure  and 
profit  of  those  who  hear  —  selecting  something  full 
of  interest,  so  that  he  may  forget  himself  in  the 
sentiment.  And  preachers  inclined  to  be  lugu- 
brious ought  by  all  means  to  read  in  private  some 
humorous  selections,  in  order  to  maintain  the  equi- 
librium. 

1  Women,  of  equal  culture  and  practice,  will  oftener  read  well 
than  men ;  and  this  is  not  surprising  when  we  note  that  women  are 
usually  quicker  in  apprehension,  more  sensitive  in  feeling  and  sym- 
pathy, have  greater  flexibility  of  voice,  and  oftener  read  to  each  other 
and  to  children. 

2  Mcllvaine's  Elocution,  pp.  239-293,  has  a  full  discussion  of  this 
subject,  with  many  useful  examples  of  common  errors.  Phyfe's  Seven 
Thousand  Words  Often  Mispronounced  is  a  useful  little  book ;  also 
Ayres'  Orthoepist. 


Sl6  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

Among  the  different  elements  of  expression  in 
reading,  two  or  three  must  be  briefly  mentioned. 
The  first  thing  thought  of  is  apt  to  be  emphasis;  and 
the  first  result  of  effort  in  this  direction  is  usually 
a  great  amount  of  false  emphasis.  Besides  the  obvi- 
ous fault  of  placing  it  on  the  wrong  word,  there  is  a 
subtler  and  very  serious  fault,  which  consists  in 
failing  properly  to  distribute  the  emphasis.  Many 
men  of  ability  and  cultivation  will  throw  the  whole 
weight  of  emphasis  upon  a  single  word  of  the  sen- 
tence or  clause,  when  it  ought  to  be  divided,  in 
different  proportions,  between  two,  or  three,  or  sev- 
eral words.  This  point  deserves  special  attention 
and  practice,  with  mutual  criticism  on  the  part  of 
friends.  After  all,  the  real  difficulty  about  emphasis 
is  in  thoroughly  comprehending  the  thought,  and 
feeling  the  sentiment  of  what  we  read ;  as  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  we  very  rarely  hear  false  emphasis 
in  unrestrained  conversation.  It  may  be  remarked 
that  the  Book  of  Proverbs  presents  numerous  admi- 
rable examples  for  exercise  in  emphasis.  Very  many 
persons  read  all  interrogative  sentences  with  the 
peculiar  expression  at  the  close  which  is  appropriate 
to  questions  expecting  the  answer  yes  or  no.  Thus: 
Did  he  say  he  would  come.^*  But  there  is  a  second 
class  of  questions  which  expect  an  answer,  but  not 
in  the  form  of  yes  or  no.  Thus :  Who  said  he  would 
come .''  And  in  a  third  class  no  answer  is  expected ; 
as,  Will  any  one  ever  come  and  help  me }  The  dis- 
tinction is  here  very  obvious,  and  never  overlooked 
in  conversation,  but  frequently  in  reading.  There 
should  very  rarely  be  2ci\y  gesture  in  reading,  beyond 
some  natural  movement  of  the  head,  together  with 
expression  of  countenance.  The  injunction  often 
given  by  teachers,  "read  precisely  as  if  you  were 
talking,"  is  not  strictly  correct.     A  sort  of  oratorical 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  517 

reading  is  strongly  to  be  condemned,  and  it  may  be 
convenient  to  say,  "  Read  more  as  if  you  were  talk- 
ing," but  the  essential  distinction  between  talking 
and  reading  should  not,  and  in  fact  cannot,  be 
destroyed.  ^ 

It  is  particularly  important  that  the  Scriptures 
should  be  well  read.  A  comparatively  small,  and 
rapidly  diminishing  number  of  people  in  our  con- 
gregations are  now  necessarily  dependent  on  public 
reading  for  their  entire  knowledge  of  Scripture,  as 
was  so  common  at  first,  when  it  was  said,  "  Blessed 
is  he  that  readeth,  and  they  that  hear,  the  words  of 
this  prophecy."  ^  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  many  per- 
sons do  not  read  the  Bible  themselves,  and  their 
minds  are  brought  in  direct  contact  with  it  only  by 
the  public  reading;  and  others  read  it  in  a  mechan- 
ical  fashion  without  proper  comprehension  or  impres- 
sion. On  the  other  hand,  those  who  read  the  Bible 
most  frequently  and  profitably  at  home,  are  often 
most  pleased  to  hear  it  read  in  public  worship. 
And  in  general,  whatever  reasons  there  are  for  read- 
ing anything  well,  apply  pre-eminently  to  the  book  of 
all  books,  the  Word  of  God.  Good  reading  has  an 
exegetical  value,  helping  to  make  plain  the  sense. 
It  also  brings  out  the  full  interest,  and  impressive- 
ness,  of  the  passage  read.  There  are  passages  which 
have  had  a  new  meaning  for  us,  and  an  added  sweet- 
ness, ever  since  we  once  heard  them  read,  it  may  be 
long  ago,  by  a  good  reader.^ 

But  to  read  the  Bible  really  well,  is  a  difficult 
task.  The  common  mode  of  printing  the  verses 
often  seriously  obscures  the  connection.  The  proper 
names   require   attention,   that   we   may   pronounce 

1  Comp.  Part  IV.  chap.  i.  §§  2,  4.  2  Rev.  i.  3. 

3  See  in  Russell,  pp.  291-294,  some  good  remarks  on  the  importance 
of  reading  the  Scriptures  well. 


$l8  CONDUCT    OF   PUBLIC  WORSHIP. 

them  readily,  correctly,  and  yet  without  pedantry.^ 
Far  more  important  is  the  lack  of  full  intellectual 
and  spiritual  sympathy  with  Scripture,  which  so 
often  prevents  our  entering  fully  into  the  sense. 
There  is  a  common  tendency  to  be  subdued  by  mis- 
taken reverence  into  a  uniform  tone,  devoid  of  real 
expression.  The  Bible  should  never  be  read  pre- 
cisely as  we  read  other  books.  It  is  all  sacred,  and 
in  reading  even  its  less  strikingly  devotional  parts 
there  should  be  a  prevailing  solemnity;  but  this 
solemnity  does  not  forbid  a  rich  variety  of  expres- 
sion, as  many  readers  appear  to  imagine. 

Different  parts  of  the  Bible  also  differ  very  widely 
in  subject  and  style,  and  there  must  be  a  correspond- 
ing difference  in  the  reading.  There  are  narrative 
portions,  varying  from  simple  stories  through  many 
grades  to  the  surpassingly  pathetic  or  impassioned; 
didactic  portions,  of  many  kinds,  as  seen  in  our  Lord's 
various  discourses,  in  the  precepts  which  everywhere 
abound,  and  in  the  elaborate  and  often  passionate 
arguments  of  certain  Epistles  of  Paul ;  and  poetical 
portions,  comprising  the  elevated  imagery  of  pro- 
phetic description,  both  in  the  Old  and  in  the  New 
Testament,  the  poetical  argument  of  Job  and  pre- 
cepts of  Proverbs,  and  the  immense  variety  of  lyrical 
passages,  in  the  Psalms  and  elsewhere,  presenting 
many  phases  of  feeling,  and  often  passing,  in  the 
same  brief  Psalm,  from  penitence  to  rejoicing  and 
praise. 2  In  fact,  the  Bible  is  not  so  much  a  single 
book  as  a  library,  containing  almost  every  species 

1  Never  depart  from  the  pronunciation  of  them  which  is  common 
among  educated  people,  unless  there  is  something  real  to  be  gained 
by  it. 

2  Russell,  Pulpit  Elocution,  p.  295,  has  a  partially  similar  classifi- 
cation, with  some  remarks  upon  the  several  classes,  and  some  good 
specimens  of  each  variety. 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  519 

of  composition,  and  requiring  to  be  read  in  almost 
every  variety  of  manner. 

One  ought  never  to  read  a  passage  in  public  wor- 
ship, without  being  thoroughly  acquainted  with  it, 
and  this  will  usually  require  that  it  be  carefully 
gone  over  but  a  short  time  before. 

(3)  It  was  once  a  very  common  practice,  and  is 
still  wisely  retained  in  some  quarters,  to  make,  in 
connection  with  the  reading,  explanatory  and  other 
remarks.  These  should  not  be  so  numerous  or  ex- 
tensive as  to  usurp  the  attention  due  to  the  passage 
itself.  They  should  aim  to  explain  it,  to  awaken 
interest  in  it,  occasionally  to  indicate  some  of  its 
practical  bearings,  and  especially  to  give  it  effect 
in  exciting  devotional  feeling.  Spurgeon  did  this 
remarkably  well,  but  many  of  his  imitators  have 
fallen  far  below  the  standard  set  by  him.  If  there 
has  been  thorough  study  of  the  passage,  and  if  the 
preacher  has  taken  pains  to  acquire  skill  in  this 
respect,  there  may  be  brief,  lively,  and  yet  devout 
remarks  that  will  make  this  part  of  our  public  wor- 
ship far  more  interesting  and  profitable.  But  ran- 
dom remarks,  made  without  study  and  without  skill, 
do  but  interrupt  the  reading,  and  are  sometimes  a 
sore  drag  upon  its  movement. 

§  2.    HYMNS. 

(i)  It  is  strange  that  some  ministers  should  care 
so  little  for  the  proper  selection  of  hymns.  They 
surely  do  not  consider  the  blessed  power  of  sacred 
song,  nor  the  fact  that  inappropriate  and  unimpres- 
sive hymns  not  only  fail  of  doing  good,  but  are  posi- 
tively chilling  and  painful.  Some  take  their  hymns 
at  the  first  opening  of  the  book,  with  no  care  to  make 
them  suit  the  general  tone  of  the  service.     Others 


520  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

are  solicitous  that  every  hymn  shall  be  upon  pre- 
cisely the  subject  discussed  in  the  sermon,  forgetting 
that  hymns  are  designed  not  specially  for  instruc- 
tion, but  to  express  and  quicken  devotional  feeling. 

To  succeed  well  in  selecting,  and  also  in  reading 
hymns,  one  must  understand  the  nature,  and  sympa- 
thize with  the  spirit  of  lyrical  poetry  —  that  is,  of 
poetry  suitable  to  be  sung.  Some  men  are  so  con- 
stituted as  to  do  this  with  ease,  but  all  will  be  ben- 
efited by  making,  as  they  may  find  opportunity, 
special  study  of  the  chief  lyric  poets,  such  as  Pindar 
and  Horace,  Goethe  and  Beranger,  Burns,  and  the  Old 
English  Ballads,  ^  as  well  as  good  lyrics  from  many 
other  sources.  This  will  not  only  develop  and  refine 
the  general  taste  for  poetry,  but  the  special  taste  for 
lyrics,  which,  besides  their  importance  for  our  pur- 
pose, are  among  the  highest  and  most  potent  forms 
that  poetry  can  assume.^ 

The  devout  study  of  the  Psalms,  while  pursued 
chiefly  for  higher  purposes,  will  also  give  one  a  better 
comprehension  of  the  spirit  of  Scripture  poetry. 
And  Christian  hymns,  of  different  ages  and  nations, 
exist  in  rich  abundance,  suited  to  advance  personal 
piety,  and  at  the  same  time  to  improve  the  critical 
appreciation  of  sacred  lyrics,  so  that  we  may  become 
able  to  select  wisely.  The  most  valuable  of  these 
are  the  Patristic  and  Mediaeval  Latin  Hymns,  the 
German  and  the  English  Hymns.  The  first  are  often 
disfigured  by  more  or  less  of  unsound  teaching,  many 
of  them  being  addressed  to  the  Virgin  Mary  or  the 
Saints;  yet  even  these  have  much  that  is  of  great 
value,  while  others,  including  some  of  the  very  finest, 
are  almost  entirely  free  from  objectionable  matter,  and 

1  The  best  collection  easily  accessible  is  Percy's  Reliques,  which 
may  be  had  in  cheap  editions. 

2  Comp.  Shedd,  pp.  301-304. 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  521 

full  of  the  noblest  poetical  and  devout  inspiration.^ 
The  German  Hymns  began  to  be  composed  at  an  ear- 
lier period,  and  are  now  more  numerous  than  our 
own ;  and  many  of  them  are  unsurpassed  for  rhyth- 
mical movement  and  devotional  sweetness.^  English 
Hymns  were  very  few  before  the  time  of  Dr.  Watts, 
early  in  the  last  century;  but  to  the  great  number 
produced  by  him,  and  afterwards  by  Charles  Wesley, 
copious  additions  have  ever  since  continued  to  be 
made,  till  now  we  have  a  goodly  heritage.  All  the 
recent  hymn-books,  particularly  those  issued  by  Con- 
gregationalists  and  by  Baptists,  are  rich  with  beau- 
tiful and  blessed  hymns,  though  usually  containing 
some  that  could  be  spared.  The  minister  ought,  by 
all  means,  whatever  time  and  pains  it  may  require,  to 
make  himself  thoroughly  familiar  with  his  Hymn- 
book,  in  order  to  prepare  him  for  prompt  and  judi- 
cious selection,  to  make  him  ready  in  that  timely 
quotation  from  hymns,  which  adds  more  in  preaching 
than  quotation  from  any  other  source  except  the  Bible, 
and  to  increase  his  personal  piety.  A  delightful  hour 
may  sometimes  be  spent  by  friends  in  discussing  the 
Hymn-book,  comparing  favorite  hymns,  reading  spe- 
cimens, and  thus  gaining  critical  knowledge,  at  the 
same  time  with  devotional  enjoyment  and  profit.  It 
is  also  important  to  examine  other  collections  than 
our  own,  to  look  out  the  original  form  of  hymns 
from  the  older  writers  which  have  been  altered,  and 
others  which  modern  works  omit,  as  seen  in  Watts 
and  Rippon,  in  the  complete  Poetical  Works  of 
Charles  Wesley,  and  in  many  of  the  recent  and  val- 
uable books  on  Hymnology.     And  there  are  inferior 

1  There  are  convenient  collections  by  Daniel  and  by  Mone ;  and 
Trench  has  an  entertaining  little  volume  entitled  Sacred  Latin  Poetry. 
Duffield's  Latin  Hymns  is  also  an  excellent  book, 

2  Dr.  P.  Schaff  has  issued  a  German  Hymn-Book,  copious,  and  no 
doubt  the  result  of  careful  selection. 


522  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

collections,  containing  some  homely  pieces  which 
would  be  at  once  rejected  by  the  critics,  but  which 
have  such  power  with  the  people  as  to  provoke  in- 
quiry, and  often  to  reward  it.  One  may  also  find  it 
interesting  to  classify  the  principal  writers  of  English 
hymns,  according  to  the  number  and  excellence  of 
the  hymns  they  have  left  us.  The  first  class  would 
doubtless  contain  Watts  and  Charles  Wesley;  the 
second  probably  Cowper,  Montgomery,  and  Miss 
Steele;  the  third,  John  Newton,  Doddridge,  and 
Beddome ;  and  then  there  w^ould  be  a  numerous  class 
of  those  who  have  written  one  or  a  few  hymns  of 
the  highest  excellence.^  The  circumstances  con- 
nected with  the  original  production  of  a  hymn  are 
sometimes  very  interesting,  and  while  it  is  seldom  de- 
sirable tp  mention  them  when  the  hymn  is  about  to 
be  sung,  they  may  occasionally  be  stated,  with  good 
effect,  when  it  is  quoted  in  a  sermon. 

The  properties  of  a  good  hymn  may  be  briefly 
stated  as  follows :  Qd)  Correct  in  sentiment.  Its  gen- 
eral doctrine  should  be  sound  —  which  is  not  quite 
true  of  too  many  popular  hymns  and  songs  and 
choruses  —  and  all  its  particular  sentiments  should 
be  just,  {b)  Devotional  in  its  spirit.  Some,  even 
of  Beddome's  hymns,  are  purely  didactic,  and  not 
warm  or  moving.  A  good  many  hymns  as  to  afflic- 
tion, and  as  to  heaven,  present  morbid  or  merely  fan- 
ciful sentiment,  altogether  wanting  in  true  devotional 
feeling,  {c)  Poetical  in  imagery  and  diction.  Many 
hymns  are  only  metrical  prose  without  any  touch  of 
genuine  imagination,  and  sometimes  employing  words 
that  are  alien  to  the  very  genius  of  poetry.     But  a 

1  Works  on  English  Hymns,  accessible  and  cheap,  are  those  of 
Belcher,  and  Christopher,  and  an  entertaining  work  entitled  Evenings 
with  the  Sacred  Poets.  Duffield's  English  Hymns,  Hatfield's  Poets 
of  the  Church,  Robinson's  Annotations  upon  Popular  Hymns,  are  all 
useful  and  excellent. 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  523 

song  which  is  not  really  poetical,  lacks  a  vital  element 
of  power.  Even  when  we  chant  unmetrical  sentences, 
they  must  always  be  poetical  in  sentiment,  the  lan- 
guage of  imagination  and  passion.  (^)  Rhythmical ; 
being  correct  as  to  metre,  animated  and  varied  in 
movement,  and  yet  not  rugged  or  halting,  but  truly 
melodious.^  {e)  Symmetrical ;  the  verses  exhibiting 
a  regular  progress  in  thought,  and  forming  a  com- 
plete and  harmonious  whole.  In  a  thoroughly  good 
hymn  it  would  not  be  possible  to  omit  any  verse, 
without  destroying  the  sense.  Still,  there  are  many 
useful  and  even  delightful  hymns  in  which  this  is  not 
the  case,  and  when  the  exigencies  of  our  worship  re- 
quire the  omission  of  some  verse  or  verses,  much 
greater  care  should  be  taken  than  is  sometimes  ob- 
served, so  to  manage  the  omission  as  to  leave  the 
hymn  still  coherent  and  harmonious.^ 

It  is  better  that  the  first  hymn  sung  should  not 
relate  to  the  precise  subject  of  the  sermon,  but  be 
emphatically  a  hymn  of  worship.  Especially  when 
the  sermon  is  to  the  unconverted,  must  it  be  out 
of  place  to  begin  the  solemn  worship  of  God  by  a 
mere  metrical  exhortation  to  impenitent  men.  Of 
course  this  opening  hymn,  as  well  as  every  other  part 
of  the  worship,  should  have  a  general  harmony  of 
tone  with  all  that  is  to  follow.  The  hymn  immedi- 
ately preceding  the  sermon  will  naturally  be  prepara- 
tory. The  last  hymn  will  apply  the  sermon,  or  express 
the  sentiments  which  the  subject  presented  ought  to 
excite,  or  form  a  general  conclusion  to  the  services. 
And  it  should  be  constantly  borne  in  mind  that  spe- 
cific appropriateness  to  the  subject  of  the  sermon  is 

1  See  below  as  to  rhythmical  pauses. 

2  Numerous  examples  of  faulty  hymns,  which  it  would  be  instruc- 
tive to  examine  (as  well  as  many  of  great  excellence),  are  found  in 
the  Olney  Hymns  (John  Newton's  Works). 


524  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

far  less  important  in  a  hymn  than  that  it  should  be 
a  truly  good  hymn,  eminently  pleasing,  impressive, 
warm.  As  in  the  case  of  texts,  it  is  very  unwise  to 
avoid  the  familiar  hymns,  for  they  have  become 
familiar  because  they  are  singularly  good. 

(2)  Why  should  we  read  hymns  at  all,  when  they 
are  about  to  be  sung?  Not  only  because  many  pres- 
ent, particularly  in  some  parts  of  the  country,  will 
have  no  hymn-book,^  but  because  the  previous  read- 
ing brings  the  mind  into  a  certain  sympathy  with  the 
sentiment,  so  that  we  enter  into  it  more  fully  when  it 
is  sung,  —  somewhat  for  the  same  reason  that  makes 
us  so  apt  to  ask  that  a  good  song  may  be  repeated. 
It  follows  that  the  reading  ought  to  be  animated  and 
sympathetic.  If  a  man  cannot,  or  will  not,  read  other- 
wise than  in  a  dull,  languid,  monotonous  fashion,  he 
had  probably  better  omit  the  reading  altogether. 
True,  the  overdone,  oratorical  manner  of  reading 
hymns  is  extremely  objectionable.  There  should  be 
no  effort,  nothing  but  natural  feeling.  But  then  if  the 
hymn  is  a  good  one,  worthy  to  be  read  and  sung  at 
all,  and  if  the  man  knows  it  well,  from  general  ac- 
quaintance or  from  thoughtful  reading  not  long  be- 
fore, it  will  not  be  natural  to  read  it  otherwise  than 
with  life  and  warmth.  To  read  in  a  calm  and  per- 
fectly quiet  manner,  the  words 

"Jesus!  I  love  thy  charming  name, 
*  T  is  music  to  mine  ear, " 

1  For  the  same  reason  it  is  still  proper,  in  some  places,  as  it  was 
once  very  common,  to  "  give  out "  the  hymn,  two  lines  at  a  time.  Alas  ! 
there  are  not  a  few  localities  in  which  many  white  as  well  as  colored 
people  cannot  read,  and  giving  out  is  a  great  comfort  to  them.  Better 
annoy  the  chief  singers  a  little  than  despise  our  weak  brethren,  and 
rob  them  of  a  share  in  this  delightful  part  of  the  worship.  Some- 
times, particularly  in  informal  meetings,  say  a  word  about  a  hymn 
before  reading  it,  —  as  to  its  origin,  its  tone,  its  associations  for  us,— 
anything  that  will  really  awaken  interest  in  it. 


CONDUCT  OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  525 

would  be,  for  a  truly  devout  man,  wellnigh  impos- 
sible. In  fact,  as  to  all  expression  of  feeling,  culti- 
vated people  are  more  apt  fastidiously  to  shrink  back 
than  to  transcend  the  limits  of  propriety. 

Similar  considerations  will  show  that  the  rhythm  of 
hymns  must  never  be  disregarded.  The  sing-song 
fashion  of  reading  verse,  often  observed  in  ignorant 
men,  and  the  monotonous  inflections,  regularly  re- 
produced at  the  end  of  the  first,  second,  third,  and 
fourth  lines  by  many  educated  men,  are  one  evil ;  but 
It  is  going  grievously  to  the  other  extreme  if  a  man 
attempts,  as  some  actually  avow,  to  read  verse  as  if  it 
were  prose.  The  sense  is  predominant ;  but  to  neg- 
lect the  rhythm  is  both  to  lose  part  of  the  beauty  and 
impressiveness  of  the  hymn,  and  to  offend  by  the 
conspicuous  absence  of  what  is  naturally  expected 
and  demanded.  Especially  must  we  observe  the 
rhythmical  pause  at  the  end  of  every  line ;  not  letting 
the  voice  drop,  nor  take  the  falling  inflection,  unless 
the  sense  so  requires ;  but  even  where  the  sense  goes 
right  on,  we  should  make  a  slight  pause,  with  the 
voice  suspended,  in  recognition  of  the  rhythmical 
close.  In  all  lines  of  any  considerable  length,  there  is 
also  an  equally  important  pause  somewhere  about  the 
middle  of  the  line,  the  varied  position  of  which 
greatly  contributes  to  the  rhythmical  effect.  Those 
who  have  not  studied  the  classic  csesura,  may,  without 
embarrassing  themselves  with  technicalities,  easily 
learn  to  perceive  the  position  of  this  pause,  by  pri- 
vately reading  many  lines  with  a  view  to  it,  especially 
by  exaggerating,  at  first,  the  rhythmical  movement, 
making  even  a  sing-song.  Sometimes  there  are  two 
such  pauses,  one  near  the  beginning,  the  other  to- 
wards the  end,  of  the  line.  These  rhythmical  pauses 
are  too  often  neglected,  though  a  man  of  good  ear 
for  music  will  frequently  observe  them  unconsciously. 


526  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

And  yet  they  may  be  mastered  with  comparative 
ease.^ 

Not  a  little  may  also  be  gained  from  the  study  of 
English  metres,  particularly  those  common  in  hymns. 
A  man's  ear  may  for  the  most  part  carry  him  through, 
but  it  must  often  fail.  There  are  exceedingly  few 
persons  who  read  verse  without  frequent  faults,  unless 
they  have  attended  to  its  metrical  structure.  The  task 
of  learning  the  metres  of  our  hymns  is  not  difficult,^ 
and  to  classify  them  into  the  somewhat  numerous 
varieties  of  Iambic,  Trochaic  (with  combinations  of 
the  two).  Anapaestic,  and  (in  a  few  specimens)  Dac- 
tylic verse,  will  be  to  some  persons  a  pleasant  amuse- 
ment, by  no  means  devoid  of  profit.  In  reading 
Anapaestic  hymns,  many  of  which  are  extremely 
beautiful,  faults  are  most  frequently  observed. 

It  will  of  course  greatly  increase  a  man's  skill  in 
reading  hymns,  and  will  especially  serve  to  correct  a 
tendency  to  be  dolorous  or  monotonous,  if  he  will 
often  read  aloud  from  secular  verse.  Many  a  preacher 
would  be  helped  with  his  Common  Metre  hymns,  by 
reading  now  and  then  to  some  friends,  with  full  life 
and  spirit,  Cowper's  John  Gilpin. 

It  is  curious  to  see  how  old  customs  are  maintained, 
after  the  occasion  for  them  has  ceased  to  exist.  When 
even  the  leader  of  the  singing  had  no  hymn-book,  it 
was  necessary  to  announce  beforehand  the  metre  of 

1  Many  good  examples  are  given  in  the  Appendix  to  Lord's  Laws 
of  Figurative  Language,  and  in  Russell's  Pulpit  Elocution.  There 
is  also  a  good  discussion,  chiefly  with  reference  to  heroic  verse,  in 
Kames'  Elements  of  Criticism. 

2  They  may  be  studied  with  advantage  in  Angus'  Hand-book  of 
the  English  Tongue,  Quackenbos'  Composition  and  Rhetoric,  and  to 
some  extent  in  almost  any  treatise  on  Composition  or  on  Grammar. 
There  is  also  a  book  on  English  Metres  (or  some  such  title),  by 
Everett.  There  is  a  particularly  good  discussion  in  Seeley  and  Ab- 
bott's English  Lessons  for  English  People,  and  a  thorough  treatment 
in  Sidney  Lanier's  Science  of  English  Verse. 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  527 

the  hymn;  and  this  is  still  regularly  and  most  for- 
mally done  by  many  Baptist  and  Methodist  ministers, 
where  there  is  no  possible  need  for  it.  So  in  *'  giving 
out,"  the  minister  would,  after  reading  over  the  hymn, 
then  read  the  first  two  lines,  to  be  sung ;  and  where 
giving  out  has  long  been  abandoned,  often  still  the 
minister  will  repeat  the  first  two  lines  in  the  same 
way.  If  it  is  desired  to  revive  the  impression  of  the 
opening  words,  this  is  lawful,  but  it  will  frequently  be 
better  accomplished  by  reading  again  simply  the  first 
line,  or  in  other  cases  the  whole  verse. 

(3)  With  reference  to  the  music  of  hymns,  it  is 
proper  here  to  make  only  a  brief  remark.  The  su- 
periority of  congregational  singing  is  beyond  ques- 
tion. Yet  it  seems  generally  necessary  to  have  a 
choir,  whose  proper  function  is  to  lead  the  singing  of 
the  congregation,  but  whose  well-known  tendency  is 
to  usurp  the  whole.  Hence  result  great  evils,  sadly 
familiar  to  us  all.  Now  the  preacher  is  the  proper 
mediator  between  choir  and  congregation.  If  a  lover 
of  music,  especially  if  able  to  sing  well  by  note,  he 
may  keep  the  sympathies  of  the  choir,  and  may  in- 
duce them,  not  by  public  but  private  requests,  to  sing 
for  the  most  part  familiar  tunes;  and  then  an  occa- 
sional public  and  private  exhortation  to  the  people, 
to  take  part  in  the  singing,  will  effect  the  best  ar- 
rangement that  is  usually  practicable.  Friendly  con- 
ference with  the  leader  of  the  singing  might  also 
secure  a  better  adaptation  of  tune  to  hymn  than  is 
often  observed. 

§  3.      PUBLIC   PRAYER.* 

The  prayers  form  the  most  important  part  of  pub- 
lic worship.     He  who  leads  a  great  congregation  in 

1  See  on  this  subject,  besides  the  German  writers  and  Hoppin, 
Porter's  Homiletics,  Dabney's  Sac  Rhet.  (Richmond,  1870),  and 


528  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

prayer,  who  undertakes  to  express  what  they  feel,  or 
ought  to  feel,  before  God,  to  give  utterance  to  their 
adoration,  confession,  supplication,  assumes  a  very 
heavy  responsibility.  We  all  readily  agree,  and  some- 
times partially  realize,  that  it  is  a  solemn  thing  to 
speak  to  the  people  for  God ;  is  it  less  so  when  we 
speak  to  God  for  the  people?  Whatever  preparation 
is  possible  for  performing  this  duty,  ought  surely  to 
be  most  carefully  made.  And  yet,  while  very  few 
now  question  the  propriety  of  preparation,  both  gen- 
eral and  special,  for  the  work  of  preaching,  it  is 
feared  the  great  majority  still  utterly  neglect  to  pre- 
pare themselves  for  the  conduct  of  public  prayer. 

The  general  preparation  for  leading  in  public  prayer 
consists  chiefly  in  the  following  things :  (i)  Fervent 
piety.  This  will  include  the  habit  of  praying  in  pri- 
vate, and  in  social  meetings.  If  it  be  true  that  "  the 
only  way  to  learn  to  preach  is  to  preach,"  it  is  still 
more  emphatically  true  that  the  only  way  to  learn  to 
pray  is  to  pray.  And  while  some  do  tolerate  preach- 
ing for  practice,  all  will  utterly  condemn  praying  for 
practice.  It  is  thus  plain  that  no  one  will  regularly 
pray  well  in  public,  who  does  not  pray  much  and 
devoutly  in  private.  Along  with  this  it  may  be  ob- 
served, that  in  every  attempt  to  pray,  under  whatever 
circumstances,  one  should  earnestly  endeavor  to  real- 
ize what  he  is  doing,  (ii)  Familiarity  with  Scripture, 
both  as  furnishing  topics  of  prayer,  and  supplying 
the  most  appropriate  and  affecting  language  of  prayer. 
The  minister  should  be  constantly  storing  in  his  mem- 
ory the  more  directly  devotional  expressions  found 
everywhere  in  the  Bible,  and  especially  in  the  Psalms 
and  Prophets,  the  Gospels,  Epistles,  and  Revelation. 

Miller's  volume  on  Public  Prayer.  Valuable  suggestions  will  be 
found  in  Dale's  Lectures  on  Preaching,  Lect.  IX.,  and  in  Parker's  Ad 
Clerum,  pp.  103-123. 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  529 

Perhaps  a  few  men  err,  in  making  their  prayers  con- 
sist of  an  almost  uninterrupted  succession  of  long 
quotations;  but  this  is  uncommon,  and  most  of  us 
greatly  need  in  our  prayers  a  larger  and  more  varied 
infusion  of  Scripture  language,  (iii)  Study  of  instruc- 
tive specimens  of  prayer.  In  the  Bible  there  are 
found,  besides  the  numerous  single  devotional  expres- 
sions, various  striking  examples  of  connected  and 
complete  prayers,  and  very  many  instances  in  v/hich 
the  substance  of  a  prayer  is  given  though  not  the 
form.  These  ought  to  be  carefully  studied,  for  in- 
struction in  the  matter  and  the  manner  of  praying. 
Some  of  the  long-established  liturgies  are  also  very 
instructive.  However  earnestly  we  may  oppose  the 
imposition  of  any  form  of  prayer,  there  is  certainly 
much  to  be  learned  from  studying  forms  prepared 
with  the  greatest  care,  and  in  most  cases  by  very  able 
and  very  devout  men.  More  modern  works,  as  col- 
lections of  prayers,  and  those  recorded  in  diaries, 
will  also  repay  occasional  examination.  In  all  such 
study  of  prayers,  great  pains  must  be  taken  not  to 
lose  the  devotional  in  the  merely  critical  spirit.  The 
study  of  devotional  works,  such  as  the  Imitation  of 
Christ,  Phelps'  Still  Hour,  and  others,  will  also  be 
found  helpful. 

The  special  preparation  which  ought  to  be  made  for 
prayer  on  any  given  occasion,  may  be  best  unde;*- 
stood  by  considering  public  prayer  as  to  its  matter, 
arrangement,  language,  and  utterance.  ^ 

(i)  As  to  the  matter,  prayers  will  be  very  general 
and  comprehensive,  or  very  specific,  according  to 
circumstances.     The  simple  and  wonderfully  compre- 

1  It  will  be  seen  that  these  divisions  correspond  to  the  four 
leading  parts  of  the  present  work,  as  a  treatise  on  Preaching.  A 
friend  suggests  that  an  Essay  might  be  appropriately  written  on  what 
should  be  styled  "  The  Homiletics  of  Public  Prayer." 

34 


530  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

hensive  prayer  given  by  our  Lord  as  a  model  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  afterwards  repeated  in  a 
much  shortened  form/  which  is  commonly  called  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  is  a  specimen  of  the  former  kind,  while 
to  the  latter  belongs  the  prayer  in  the  seventeenth 
chapter  of  John.  In  both  directions  we  often  witness 
grave  errors.  Some  prayers  are  so  general  as  to 
include  almost  everything,  and  thus  to  have  no  point. 
A  prayer  ought  never  to  be  indefinite  and  straggling, 
but  should  always  have  certain  well-defined  topics; 
and  these  should,  when  practicable,  be  determined 
beforehand.  Some  who  lead  in  prayer  enter  into 
such  minute  details  as  to  be  inconsistent  with  the 
character  of  a  prayer  suited  to  a  whole  assembly, 
and  sometimes  to  be  indecorous.^ 

Too  many  persons  wholly  omit,  in  public  prayer, 
or  mention  only  in  a  few  conventional  phrases  before 
closing,  those  great  subjects  of  supplication  which  He 
apart  from  their  own  immediate  concerns.  Yet  in 
the  ''Lord's  Prayer"  these  subjects  occupy  half  the 
space,  and  the  first  half.  Prayer  for  Missions,  at 
home  and  abroad,  for  the  increase  of  laborers,  for 
Sunday-schools,  and  other  such  objects,  ought  fre- 
quently to  occur — sometimes  one  of  them  being 
dwelt  on,  and  sometimes  another. 

It  is  often  and  justly  urged  that  we  must  not,  in 
praying,  undertake  to  instruct  God.  Yet  this  idea 
must  not  be  carried  too  far.     Our  Lord,  in  the  prayer 

1  See  any  of  the  recently  revised  texts,  in  Greek  or  English.  The 
omission  of  several  important  clauses  on  this  second  occasion  (Luke 
xi.  2-4),  and  the  alteration  of  some  expressions,  prove  conclusively 
that  this  was  not  meant  by  our  Lord  as  2Lform  of  prayer,  for  on  that 
supposition  we  should  have  him  failing  to  repeat  the  form  correctly. 
Notice  how  much  is  omitted  in  the  corrected  text  of  Luke. 

2  Parker  says  that  some  of  these  prayers  are  "  nothing  better  than 
catalogues  of  church  institutions,  and  advertisements  of  church  work." 
Ad  Clerum,  p.  104,  with  examples. 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  531 

of  John  xvii.  states  what  he  has  been  doing,  and 
explains  how  eternal  life  is  attained.  It  is  therefore 
proper  sometimes  to  recite  occurrences,  or  make 
statements,  provided  they  become  the  occasion  of 
thanksgiving  or  petition.  Again,  prayer  must  not  be 
used  as  a  medium  for  exhorting  the  people,  as  is 
often  half  unconsciously  done.  Nor  must  it  contain 
complimentary  allusions.  To  pray  with  elaborate 
compliment  for  another  minister  present,  is  a  sadly 
frequent  and  grossly  improper  practice.  Robert 
Hall  erred  in  praying  too  often  for  distinguished 
persons  in  the  audience.  So  with  allusions  to  "  this 
large  and  intelligent  congregation."  Of  course  there 
may  be  prayer  for  particular  classes  of  persons,  and 
sometimes  for  individuals;  but  no  compliments.  Al- 
lusions to  political  questions,  or  any  matters  which 
are  occasioning  strife  in  the  community,  can  be  jus- 
tified only  by  peculiar  circumstances  and  mode  of 
handling. 

Special  pains  should  be  taken  to  give  to  public 
prayer  the  requisite  variety —  in  topics,  as  well  as  in 
order.  Many  preachers  pray  uniformly  for  the  same 
objects,  and  where  they  also  follow  a  fixed  order,  and 
use  many  stereotyped  phrases,  it  becomes  virtually 
a  form  of  prayer,  without  the  advantage  of  having 
been  eminently  well  prepared.  Much  may  be  done 
towards  securing  variety  by  inquiring  beforehand 
what  petitions  would  be  suggested  by  the  occasion, 
or  by  the  subject  of  the  sermon,  or  by  the  passage 
of  Scripture  just  read,  or  the  hymn  which  has  been 
sung.  Of  the  topics  which  must  of  necessity  be  fre- 
quently introduced,  some  may  be  elaborated  on  one 
occasion,  and  some  on  another.  In  these,  and  many 
such  ways,  variety  may  be  gained.  Of  course  there 
should  be  no  straining  after  it,  nor  any  elaborateness 
in  the  prayer,  of  whatsoever  kind. 


532  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

Any  attempt  to  catalogue  or  classify  the  materials 
of  prayer  would  be  here  inappropriate. 

(2)  The  arrangement  of  prayer  must  not  be  formal, 
but  there  should  always  be  a  real  order.  It  is  not 
necessary,  if  desirable,  that  this  should  descend  to 
details.  The  leading  topics  must  not  only  be  chosen, 
as  we  have  seen,  but  arranged  in  the  mind  before- 
hand. All  the  arguments  we  have  urged  in  favor  of 
arrangement  in  preaching,  apply,  more  or  less,  to 
order  in  prayer.^ 

The  order  which  seems  to  be  usually  thought  most 
appropriate,  may  be  stated  as  follows:  {a)  Invoca- 
tion, adoration,  thanksgiving,  {b)  Confession,  and 
prayer  for  forgiveness,  {c)  Renewed  dedication,  and 
prayer  for  help,  {d)  Intercession,  for  all  general  or 
special  objects.  Beginning  with  the  thought  of 
God's  character  and  mercies,  we  are  naturally  led 
to  think  next  of  our  own  sins;  and  hence  the  order 
named.  But  adoration  may  also  naturally  be  fol- 
lowed by  prayer  that  God  may  be  known  and  adored 
over  all  the  earth  (see  the  Lord's  Prayer),  and  refer- 
ence to  ourselves,  whether  thanksgiving  or  suppli- 
cation, be  introduced  afterwards.  Or  the  very  first 
words,  after  addressing  God,  may  be  a  confession  of 
sin,  and  a  cry  for  mercy.  Moreover,  something  pecu- 
liar in  the  occasion,  something  known  to  be  pressing 
upon  the  hearts  of  the  worshippers,  may  demand  a 
great  departure  from  the  usual  order,  as  well  as  the 
usual  selection,  of  topics.  We  must  avoid  the  two 
extremes,  of  wandering  hither  and  thither,  and  of 
stiff,  formal,  unchangeable  order.  Within  these  lim- 
its, one  may  be  guided  by  judgment  and  taste,  by 
feeling  and  the  occasion.^ 

(3)   The  language  of  prayer  must,  of  course,  be 

1  See  Part  II.  chap.  i. 

2  As  to  the  length  of  prayers,  see  below,  §  4. 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  533 

grammatical,  and  free  from  all  vulgarisms  and  odd- 
ities. It  should  be  thoroughly  simple,  —  not  low 
and  coarse,  but  not  learned  or  inflated.  We  must 
avoid  elaborateness,  and  prettiness,  which  is  ex- 
tremely offensive  to  good  taste  and  painful  to  truly 
devout  feeling,  but  must  not  avoid,  when  deeply 
affected,  the  natural  language  of  emotion,  which  is 
apt  to  be  figurative,  and  sometimes  very  highly  figur- 
ative. Where  this  is  really  natural,  it  will  never 
strike  one  as  finery.  It  is  one  of  the  poorest  com- 
pliments that  can  be  paid  a  man  to  say,  that  he 
made  an  "eloquent"  prayer;  earnest,  fervent,  sol- 
emn, deeply  impressive,  spiritually  helpful  —  such 
are  the  terms  to  be  desired,  if  indeed  a  prayer  is 
commended  at  all. 

Almost  all  who  lead  in  prayer  come  to  have  pet 
phrases,  whether  they  were  originally  imitated,  or 
have  only  grown  habitual.  It  is  very  well  that  the 
prayer  of  another  should  suggest  to  us  topics  or 
sentiments  we  had  never  introduced,  but  to  borrow 
phrases  in  prayer  is  in  wretched  taste,  and  even  un- 
conscious borrowing  should  by  every  possible  means 
be  avoided.  Yet  one  hears  certain  favorite  phrases 
all  over  the  country,  which  must  have  been  adopted 
by  imitation.  Sometimes  they  involve  an  image,  as, 
"  Stop  them  in  their  mad  career;  "  or  an  alliteration, 
as,  "  Choose  all  our  changes  for  us,"  "  Touch  and 
tender  their  hearts "  (which  is  bad  English) ;  or  a 
big  word,  instead  of  homely  Saxon,  as,  "  And  ulti- 
mately save  us,"  where  "  at  last "  would  be  simpler 
and  better.  Examples  could,  but  need  not,  be  mul- 
tiplied, though  the  evil  is  extremely  common,  and 
very  hurtful.  The  use  of  such  phrases  seems  to 
show  that  the  mind  is  occupied  with  the  mere  ex- 
ternals of  prayer,  instead  of  being  engrossed  with 
devout  feeling.    Even  where  expressions  are  not  bor- 


534  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

rowed,  but  have  merely  become  habitual,  their  too 
frequent  recurrence  is  still  more  objectionable  in 
prayer  than  in  preaching. 

Many  are  constantly  repeating  Oh !  and  Ah !  or  O 
Lord  !  or  ''  We  pray  thee,"  "  We  beseech  thee,"  and 
the  like.  Familiar  language,  such  as  the  mystics  use, 
*'  my  Jesus,"  "  sweet  Lord,"  had  better  be  avoided. 
The  phrases  used  in  addressing  God  will  naturally 
be  chosen  with  some  reference  to  the  connection. 
Thus  our  Lord  says,  "  I  thank  thee,  O  Father,  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earthy  that  thou  hast  hid  these  things," 
etc.  It  is  an  act  of  sovereignty.  "  Shall  not  the 
Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?"  is  natural,  rather 
than,  "  Shall  not  the  Almighty  [the  All-wise,  or  the 
merciful  God]  do  right?  " 

In  employing  the  language  of  Scripture,  as  already 
recommended,  it  is  quite  important  to  quote  cor- 
rectly ;  and  it  is  curious  to  observe  the  incorrect  quo- 
tations which  are  heard  in  widely  distant  places, 
showing  that  they  have  been  learned  by  oral  tradi- 
tion. "  Where  two  or  three  .  .  .  there  am  I  in  the 
midst  of  them,  and  that  to  bless  the^nT  The  words 
in  italics  are  an  addition.  "  Thou  canst  not  look  upon 
sin  with  the  least  degree  of  allowance!'  spoils  a  for- 
cible and  beautiful  image. ^  "  That  the  word  of  the 
Lord  may  have  free  course,  rnn,  and  be  glorified," 
adds  from  the  margin  the  word  "  run,"  there  sug- 
gested as  a  possible  substitute  for  "  have  free  course." 
''  The  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world,"  is  a  curious  change  from  "  sin,"  but  is  found 
in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  in  a  Greek  hymn 
probably  as  early  as  the  third  century. 

(4)  The  utterance  of  prayer  "  should  be  softer,  more 
level,    .   .   .    less   vehement,    more   subdued.     Every 

^  See  Hab.  i.  13,  where  the  language  is,  "Thou  art  of  purer  eyes 
than  to  behold  evil,  and  canst  not  look  on  iniquity." 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  535 

tone  should  breathe  tenderness  and  supplication.  .  .  . 
It  is  difficult  to  say  which  is  most  unsuitable  to  this 
sacred  exercise  —  a  hurried,  perfunctory  utterance, 
as  of  one  who  reads  some  tiresome  or  trivial  matter,  a 
violent  and  declamatory  manner,  as  though  one  had 
ventured  upon  objurgation  of  his  Maker,  or  a  head- 
long and  confused  enunciation."  ^ 

The  utterance  must  by  all  means  be  distinct  —  not 
boisterous,  but  perfectly  audible  throughout  the  room. 
To  this  end  one  should  keep  his  head  upright,  not 
bowing  forward  or  covering  his  face  with  his  hands. 
It  is  very  painful,  and  somewhat  common,  to  be 
unable  to  hear.  As  to  the  precise  tones  to  be  em- 
ployed, let  one  strive  to  realize  what  he  is  doing,  and 
then  speak  simply  as  he  feels,  unless  he  becomes 
conscious  of  special  faults.  Some  men  are  given  to 
the  use  of  a  lugubrious  tone,  which  does  not  belong 
to  the  natural  language  of  penitence  and  love,  and 
is  sometimes  ridiculous.  The  tone  should,  of  course, 
be  solemn  and  reverential,  rather  than  familiar,  but 
that  does  not  require  it  to  be  '*  mournful." 

We  must  also  avoid  contortions  of  countenance, 
and  tricks  of  posture  and  gesture,  which  there  will 
always  be  some  persons  to  notice. 

§  4.      LENGTH  OF  THE  SERVICES. 

The  proper  length  will  depend  very  much  upon 
circumstances.  Two  centuries  ago  it  was  not  un- 
common, both  in  the  Church  of  England  and  among 
Dissenters,  to  occupy  from  three  to  six  hours.  At 
present  there  is  in  many  quarters  a  great  impatience 
of  long  services,  which  should  be  neither  yielded  to 
nor  disregarded.  In  the  country,  where  people  ride 
or  walk  some  distance,  and  have  but  one  service  a 

1  Dabney,  Sac.  Rhet.  p.  358. 


536  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

day,  it  may  be  much  longer  than  in  town.  When 
some  particular  occasion  demands  unusual  length, 
and  will  make  the  services  interesting  throughout, 
they  may  be  prolonged  beyond  the  usual  time.  In 
general,  while  the  customs  of  the  place  and  the 
known  preferences  of  the  congregation  are  to  be  con- 
sulted, we  must  not  allow  them  to  bind  us  with  iron 
fetters.  There  should  be  freedom,  and  some  variety, 
so  as  to  withstand  the  perpetual  tendency  to  gravitate 
into  formalism.  Many  persons  regard  custom  as  a 
sort  of  common  law,  more  binding  than  an  authorita- 
tive form  of  worship.  Against  this  the  minister  may 
practically  protest  by  such  occasional  variations  as 
seem  appropriate,  taking  care  not  to  shock  by  abrupt 
or  singular  changes.  There  can  be  little  of  free, 
spontaneous  life,  where  it  is  cramped  by  unvarying 
forms,  whether  they  be  fixed  by  statute  or  by  custom. 
But  innovation  merely  for  the  sake  of  novelty,  is 
worse  than  useless. 

As  to  the  length  of  a  sermon,  it  would  be  well  for 
a  pastor  to  get  it  understood  that  he  may  sometimes 
make  the  sermon  very  short,  and  sometimes  quite 
long.  There  are  subjects  which  can  be  made  very 
interesting  and  instructive  for  twenty  minutes,  but  to 
occupy  thirty  or  forty  minutes  it  would  be  necessary 
to  introduce  matter  really  foreign  and  such  as  will 
lessen  the  effect,  or  so  to  hammer  out  the  style  as 
will  make  it  less  impressive.  Many  a  preacher  has 
thought  of  subjects  or  texts  of  precisely  this  descrip- 
tion, and  has  been  compelled  either  to  abandon  them, 
or  to  spoil  them  in  one  of  the  ways  indicated.  Why 
not  occasionally  preach  a  very  short  sermon,  of 
twenty,  or  even  of  fifteen  minutes?  In  that  case,  if 
circumstances  warrant,  the  other  services  might,  with- 
out remark,  be  made  longer  than  usual,  pains  being 
taken  to  render  them  interesting  and  impressive.    On 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  537 

the  other  hand,  there  are  subjects  which  imperatively 
demand  an  extended  treatment,  and  cannot  well  be 
divided ;  and  the  preacher,  especially  when  at  home, 
ought  to  feel  at  liberty  to  occupy  a  full  hour,  or  in 
rare  cases  even  more,  provided  he  is  sure  the  sermon 
will  have  such  a  variety  of  distinct  points,  such  stir- 
ring movement  from  beginning  to  end,  and  such  sus- 
tained energy  of  delivery,  as  will  keep  the  people 
interested  in  a  high  degree.  Within  these  limits,  the 
proper  average  in  towns  will  probably  be  from  thirty 
to  forty-five  minutes,  the  former  being  best  where  the 
habitual  mode  of  treating  a  subject  is  condensed  and 
concentrated,  the  latter  where  it  is  more  discursive 
and  varied.  It  is  obvious  that  much  depends  on  the 
mode  of  treatment.  A  long  sermon  may  seem  short, 
a  short  one  may  be  "  tedious-brief,"  like  the  scene  of 
Pyramus  and  Thisbe. 

The  prayers  are  very  commonly  made  too  long. 
The  people  cannot  avoid  becoming  weary.  It  would 
be  better  to  have  a  greater  number  of  prayers  during 
the  service,  and  have  them  shorter.  In  general,  there 
may  be  three  prayers,  but  varying  in  length  accord- 
ing to  circumstances.  The  invocation,  which  opens 
the  services  —  following  the  voluntary  anthem  from 
the  choir  or  voluntary  hymn  from  the  congregation 
—  is  usually  and  properly  short,  but  might  some- 
times be  made  longer  upon  occasion.  The  principal 
prayer,  which  is  followed  by  the  sermon,  is  especially 
likely  to  become  too  long.  The  last  prayer,  after 
the  sermon,  ought  to  vary  widely  in  length.  If  the 
preacher,  or  some  other  who  is  called  on,  feels  deeply 
moved,  and  if  the  services  have  not  been  unusually 
long,  this  prayer  may  be  considerably  extended.  If 
not,  it  should  be  short,  sometimes  very  short.  Even 
where  the  sermon  has  made  a  great  impression,  the 
particular  character  of  that   impression  and  of  the 


538  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

subject  must  determine  whether  it  had  better  be  fol- 
lowed by  a  long  prayer  or  a  short  one.  Whitefield 
once  rebuked  a  man  who  prayed  too  long  by  saying, 
**  Sir,  you  prayed  me  into  a  good  frame,  and  then 
you  prayed  me  out  of  it."  ^  It  is  sometimes  well  to 
let  a  hymn  follow  the  sermon,  and  then  close  with  a 
benediction.  Or,  without  a  hymn,  the  benediction 
may  follow  at  once.  In  either  case  the  benediction, 
which  is  nothing  but  a  short  prayer,  may  be  preceded 
by  a  few  sentences  of  other  prayer,  appropriate  to 
the  subject  which  has  been  presented. 

In  general,  as  has  been  intimated,  the  different 
parts  of  the  service,  reading  Scripture,  singing,  preach- 
ing, prayer,  should  vary  in  length  according  to  cir- 
cumstances, one  part  being  made  longer  when  another 
is  shorter,  with  no  straining  after  sensational  nov- 
elty, but  with  the  variety  which  unrestricted  feeling 
naturally  prompts.  The  whole  service  should  not 
often  go  much  beyond  the  usual  time  of  closing. 

§    5.      PULPIT  DECORUM. 

It  is  wonderful  how  much  harm  is  sometimes  done 
by  trifling  acts  of  indecorum  in  the  pulpit.  The 
mode  of  entering  the  church  or  the  pulpit,  should 
be  neither  bold  nor  affectedly  humble,  neither  careless 
nor  sanctimonious ;  the  preacher  should  be  thinking 
of  God's  truth,  of  really  worshipping  God,  and  be 
full  of  a  desire  to  edify  and  save  souls.  If  the 
preacher,  especially  a  young  man,  is  seen  arranging 
his  hair  or  his  neck-tie,  it  will  utterly  prejudice  some 
persons  against  his  sermon.  If  his  dress  is  slovenly 
or  showy,  it  will  have  a  similar  effect.  If  he  is  seen 
or  heard  taking  a  glass  of  water,  or  consulting  his 
watch,  while  another  prays  after  his  sermon,  or  hunt- 

1  Quoted  in  Ad  Clerum,  p.  113. 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  539 

ing  up  hymns  while  another  prays  before  it,  we  can 
hardly  wonder  that  people  are  offended.  Two  min- 
isters should  not  talk  together  during  the  singing, 
unless  there  is  peculiar  occasion  for  it.  In  case  of 
any  special  services,  such  as  ordinations,  funerals, 
dedications,  when  several  ministers  are  to  take  part, 
the  details  should  be  carefully  arranged  and  thor- 
oughly understood  beforehand,  so  as  to  prevent  awk- 
wardness and  unnecessary  conference  during  the 
service.  To  look  about  carelessly  before  beginning 
the  services,  betokens  a  mind  little  occupied  with 
sacred  things.  Yet  it  is  far  from  desirable  to  sub- 
stitute an  elaborate  solemnity  of  air.  And  the  prac- 
tice of  kneeling  upon  entering  the  pulpit,  is  of  very 
doubtful  propriety.  The  preacher  ought  to  pray 
before  beginning  his  solemn  duties,  but  had  he  not 
better  offer  his  prayer  in  private  than  in  public? 
The  following  picture  has  become  famous :  — 

"  Would  I  describe  a  preacher,  such  as  Paul, 
Were  he  on  earth,  would  hear,  approve,  and  own  — 
Paul  should  himself  direct  me.     I  would  trace 
His  master  strokes,  and  draw  from  his  design. 
I  would  express  him  simple,  grave,  sincere : 
In  doctrine  uncomipt :  in  language  plain, 
And  plain  in  manner ;  decent,  solemn,  chaste, 
And  natural  in  gesture ;  much  impressed 
Himself,  as  conscious  of  his  awful  charge, 
And  anxious  mainly  that  the  flock  he  feeds 
May  feel  it  too  ;  affectionate  in  look 
And  tender  in  address,  as  well  becomes 
A  messenger  of  grace  to  guilty  men. 
Behold  the  picture.     Is  it  like  ?     Like  whom  ? 
The  things  that  mount  the  rostrum  with  a  skip 
And  then  skip  down  again ;  pronounce  a  text ; 
Cry  —  hem  ;  and  reading  what  they  never  wrote, 
Just  fifteen  minutes,  huddle  up  their  work, 
And  with  a  well-bred  whisper  close  the  scene  ! "  * 

*  Cowper  on  Pulpit  Proprieties.    Comp.  Kidder,  Horn.  p.  378  S, 


540  CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC  WORSHIP. 

A  preacher  should  never  exhibit  irritation  at  in- 
attention, or  even  at  misconduct,  in  the  audience. 
When  it  is  really  necessary  to  rebuke,  and  to  rebuke 
sharply,  it  ought  to  be  manifest  that  he  is  not  resent- 
ing a  personal  slight,  but  affected  by  higher  motives. 
And  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  public  rebukes  are 
better  omitted.  They  often  give  offence,  and  the 
good  they  do  might  usually  be  reached  in  some  other 
way.  A  kind  but  decided  word  in  private  is  com- 
monly much  better.  Few  preachers  have  ever  had 
occasion  to  regret  that  they  had  been  silent,  when 
moved  to  public  rebuke;  many  have  regretted  that 
they  spoke. 

There  should  be  nothing  self-important,  or  formal, 
in  the  preacher's  manner.  It  is  generally  better  to 
say  "  I "  than  to  use  the  royal  **  we,"  the  plural  of  ma- 
jesty. There  may  be  more  egotism  in  the  latter  case 
than  the  former.  To  avoid  the  too  frequent  recurrence 
of  the  first  person  singular,  the  preacher  may  often  as- 
sociate himself  with  the  hearers,  and  then  say  "  we." 

After  great  excitement,  in  the  pulpit  or  elsewhere, 
there  is  apt  to  be  a  corresponding  reaction.  But 
many  persons  fail  to  understand  how  a  man  who  was 
so  solemn  during  the  sermon,  is  now  so  light.  Men 
of  excitable  nature  should  avoid  exhibiting  the  effect 
of  this  reaction.  How  foolish  soever  people  may  be 
in  criticising  trifles,  we  must  not  leave  them,  as  to 
such  minor  matters,  an  excuse  for  finding  fault. 


§   6.      CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

After  all  our  preparation,  general  and  special,  for 
the  conduct  of  public  worship  and  for  preaching,  our 
dependence  for  real  success  is  on  the  Spirit  of  God. 
And  where  one  preaches  the  gospel,  in  reliance  on 
God's  blessing,  he  never  preaches  in  vain.     The  ser- 


CONDUCT   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  541 

mon  meant  for  the  unconverted  may  greatly  benefit 
believers,  and  vice  versa.  Without  the  slightest  man- 
*ifest  result  at  present,  a  sermon  may  be  heard  from 
long  afterwards ;  perhaps  only  in  eternity.  And  the 
most  wretched  failure,  seeming  utterly  useless,  may 
benefit  the  preacher  himself,  and  through  him,  all 
who  afterwards  hear  him.  Thus  we  partially  see  how 
it  is  that  God's  Word  always  does  good,  always  pros- 
pers in  the  thing  whereto  he  sent  it. 

Nor  must  we  ever  forget  the  power  of  character 
and  life  to  reinforce  speech.  What  a  preacher  w, 
goes  far  to  determine  the  effect  of  what  he  says. 
There  is  a  saying  of  Augustine,  Cujus  vita  fulgor, 
ejus  verba  tonitruay  —  if  a  man's  life  be  lightning, 
his  words  are  thunders. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


NO  attempt  is  here  made  to  give  a  complete  list  of  books 
on  Homiletics  and  its  related  subjects ;  yet  it  is  sup- 
posed that  the  names,  and  a  brief  critical  account,  of  a 
number  of  the  more  important  works,  will  be  found  helpful 
to  the  student.  The  books  mentioned  have  all  been  tested 
by  use  or  personal  examination.  It  will  be  proper  to  men- 
tion :  (i)  Books  upon  general  Rhetoric.  (2)  Those  which 
are  particularly  devoted  to  Homiletics.  (3)  Those  upon 
some  subjects  related  to  Homiletics. 

I.  WORKS   ON   GENERAL  RHETORIC. 

1.  Ancient  "Works.  —  Some  of  the  ancient  works  are 
especially  deserving  of  mention.  Aristotle's  "Rhetoric** 
ought  by  all  means  to  be  studied  in  a  translation,  as  that 
of  Bohn*s  Library,  if  it  cannot  be  read  in  the  original. 

Longinus  "  On  the  Sublime  "  is  celebrated  and  mteresting. 

Cicero's  treatises  on  oratory,  "  De  Oratore,"  "  Orator,"  and 
"Brutus,"  are  quite  unsystematic  and  incomplete,  but  are 
full  of  striking  thoughts  and  useful  suggestions. 

Quintihan's  "Instruction  of  the  Orator"  ought  by  all 
means  to  be  read  by  any  one  who  wishes  to  go  to  the 
bottom  of  the  subject. 

Horace's  "Ars  Poetica"  contains  many  precepts  as  to 
composition  of  every  kind.  The  *' Dialogue  on  Orators," 
wrongly  attributed  to  Tacitus,  has  some  value. 

These  great  Greek  and  Roman  works  have  not  been 
superseded  by  the  modern  books  which  have  drawn  from 


544  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

them  so  largely.  In  reading  them  in  the  original,  or  in 
translations,  the  student  will  be  often  reminded  of  Sydney 
Smith's  sarcasm,  that  "  the  ancients  have  stolen  all  our  best 
thoughts.'' 

2.  Modern  Works.  —  Campbell's  "  Philosophy  of  Rhet- 
oric," though  somewhat  dry  and  difficult,  is  a  remarkably 
able  work,  and  will  repay  careful  study.  Nor  has  Whately's 
admirable  "Rhetoric"  been  rendered  valueless  by  more 
recent  discussions.  Its  treatment  of  Argument  and  Style  is 
particularly  good.  Theremin's  "  Eloquence  a  Virtue,"  trans- 
lated by  Shedd,  with  a  good  introduction,  is  a  small  volume 
which  may  be  read  with  great  profit. 

Among  newer  works,  the  following  may  be  mentioned  as 
especially  valuable :  Day's  "  Art  of  Discourse "  is  a  thor- 
oughly good  book,  perhaps  a  little  too  stiff  in  form,  but  ana- 
lytical, clear,  and  sensible.  Prof.  J.  H.  Gilmore's  "  Art  of 
Expression "  is  a  condensed,  but  lucid  and  helpful  little 
work.  Bain's  **  Composition  and  Rhetoric  "  has  been  a  very 
useful  treatise.  *'The  Principles  of  Written  Discourse,"  by 
Prof.  T.  W.  Hunt  of  Princeton,  contains  much  excellent 
matter.  The  "  Practical  Rhetoric,"  and  the  "  Hand-Book 
of  Rhetorical  Analysis,"  by  Prof.  John  F.  Genung,  are  very 
sensible  and  useful  discussions.  Prof.  A.  S.  Hill  has  two 
treatises,  both  of  high  order,  namely,  "The  Foundations 
of  Rhetoric,"  and  "The  Principles  of  Rhetoric,"  the  latter 
being  for  more  advanced  students.  "  The  Science  of  Rhet- 
oric," by  D.  J.  Hill,  is,  as  its  name  indicates,  a  treatise  on 
the  principles  of  Rhetoric  for  advanced  classes,  and  contains 
much  that  is  valuable.  One  of  the  best  recent  books  is 
"English  Composition,"  by  Prof.  Barrett  Wendell  of  Har- 
vard. It  eschews  the  severe  analytic  form  of  most  text- 
books, and  has  a  right  to  be  esteemed  for  its  own  literary 
merits.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  delightful  volume  of 
the  late  Austin  Phelps  on  "  English  Style  in  Public  Dis- 
course." This  has  been  recast  and  put  into  text-book  form, 
by  Professor  Frink  of  Amherst  College,  but  for  Homiletical 
students  the  original  work  is  preferable. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  545 


II.   WORKS   ON   HOMILETICS. 

1.  Ancient.  —  Chrysostom  on  the  "  Priesthood "  is  a 
charming  Httle  work,  and  contains  several  excellent  pas- 
sages on  preaching.  The  original  may  be  had  in  a  separate 
volume,  and  it  has  been  newly  translated  into  English  by 
B.  H.  Cowper.  Augustine  was  a  teacher  of  Rhetoric  before 
his  conversion,  and  in  his  treatise  "  De  Doctrina  Christiana  " 
(On  Christian  Teaching),  he  devotes  Book  IV.  to  instruction 
in  the  setting  forth  of  Christian  truth,  giving  many  interesting 
and  useful  thoughts. 

2.  German.  —  Palmer's  "  Homiletik  "  is  by  a  popular 
Lutheran  writer,  and  has  decided  merits.  Hagenbach's 
**  Liturgik  und  Homiletik "  contains  much  that  is  good. 
The  Germans  usually  discuss  Homiletics  in  treatises  on 
Practical  Theology  in  general.  Otto's  "  Evangelische  Prak- 
tische  Theologie  "  is  unusually  full  on  this  subject,  and  on 
several  branches  of  it  is  decidedly  able.  The  "  Praktische 
Theologie"  of  Ebrard  is  comparatively  meagre  on  Homi- 
letics, but  has  spirited  remarks  and  suggestions.  There  are 
also  good  works  on  this  subject  by  Nitzsch,  Beyer,  and 
Henke.  More  recent  is  the  "  Geschichte  und  Theorie  der 
Predigt "  of  Th.  Harnack.  It  has  the  excellences  and  faults 
of  the  German  method  and  point  of  view,  but  is  a  suggestive 
and  valuable  treatise. 

3.  French.  —  F^nelon's  "Dialogues  on  Eloquence"  are 
very  readable,  and  excellent  on  some  points.  They  may  be 
found  in  the  good  collection  entitled  "The  Preacher  and 
Pastor."  Claude's  "Essay  on  the  Composition  of  a  Ser- 
mon "  is  quite  valuable,  and  has  exerted  a  wide  influence. 
There  are  a  number  of  English  editions  of  this.  Vinet's 
"Homiletics"  (translated  by  Skinner)  was  published  from 
his  notes  and  those  of  some  of  his  students  after  his  death, 
and  notwithstanding  this  defect,  is  on  many  subjects  very 
valuable  and  interesting.  Adolphe  Monod's  "Lecture  on 
the  Delivery  of  Sermons  "  is  singularly  good.  It  is  published 
as  an  appendix  in  Fish's  "Select  Discourses"  translated 
from  the  French  and  German.    The  little  work  of  Coquerel, 

35 


546  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

"Observations  Pratiques  sur  la  Predication,"  has  not  been 
translated.  It  is  a  spirited  treatise,  pungent,  suggestive, 
practical,  and  useful. 

4.  English.  —  Campbell's  "  Lectures  on  Pulpit  Eloquence  " 
are  judicious  and  useful,  while  quite  brief.  Gresley's  "  Treat- 
ise on  Preaching "  has  been  reprinted  in  this  country,  and 
while  specially  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  English  clergy,  is 
valuable  to  all,  and  is  written  in  an  agreeable  style.  "  Papers 
on  Preaching  and  Public  Speaking,"  by  a  Wykehamist,  is  a 
small  but  excellent  work,  unsystematic,  but  sensible  and 
sprightly.  "  Ad  Clerum,"  by  the  famous  London  preacher, 
Joseph  Parker,  is  a  lively  and  interesting  little  book,  though 
not  always  judicious.  ^'  The  Art  of  Preaching  and  the  Com- 
position of  Sermons,"  by  Henry  Burgess,  is  very  sensible  on 
some  points,  but  is  quite  incomplete  as  a  treatise.  The  Rev. 
E.  Paxton  Hood  has  two  entertaining  and  helpful  volumes 
on  preaching,  "The  Throne  of  Eloquence,"  and  "The 
Vocation  of  the  Preacher."  Spurgeon's  three  series  of 
"  Lectures  to  my  Students "  discuss  miscellaneous  topics 
relating  to  preaching,  and  are  full  of  striking  suggestions 
and  expressions,  and  of  devout  earnestness.  They  are  very 
readable  and  valuable,  but  sometimes  one-sided,  from  the 
author's  not  understanding  minds  and  methods  quite  differ- 
ent from  his  own.  The  second  series  attends  especially  to 
Delivery,  and  the  third  to  the  Art  of  Illustration.  "  For 
the  Work  of  the  Ministry,"  by  Prof.  W.  G.  Blaikie  of  Edin- 
burgh, treats  of  both  preaching  and  pastoral  work.  It  is 
brief,  but  full  of  good  sense.  Mention  should  also  be  made 
in  this  connection  of  two  works  by  a  Roman  Catholic  priest 
and  professor  in  Dublin,  Thomas  J.  Potter.  One  is  called 
"  Sacred  Eloquence,"  and  contains  many  good  remarks  with 
various  striking  quotations  from  Catholic  writers.  The  other 
is  called  "  The  Spoken  Word,"  and  deals  more  especially 
with  the  matter  of  extemporaneous  delivery. 

5.  American.  —  Our  country  has  produced  a  large  number 
of  excellent  books  on  Homiletics.  Among  them  may  be 
mentioned  the  following :  "  Homiletics,"  by  D.  P.  Kidder 
(at  one  time  Professor  in  the  Methodist  Biblical  Institute  at 
Evanston,  111.,  and  later  at  Drew  Theological  Seminary),  is 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  547 

very  complete  in  its  range  of  topics,  and  contains  much  th^t 
is  good ;  but  it  is  very  unequal  in  its  discussions,  and  the 
views  presented  on  some  subjects  are  regarded  as  objection- 
able. Alexander's  "  Thoughts  on  Preaching,"  though  frag- 
mentary, is  a  capital  book,  stimulating  and  full  of  good  things. 
"  Christian  Rhetoric,''  by  Rev.  G.  W.  Hervey,  is  a  noteworthy, 
and,  for  discriminating  students,  valuable  work.  It  is  a  very 
complete  and  comprehensive  discussion,  showing  wide  reading 
and  a  good  grasp  of  the  subject.  He  attempts  to  reconstruct 
Rhetoric  for  the  pulpit  entirely  by  Biblical  examples.  He 
makes,  therefore,  a  wide  distinction  between  Homiletics  and 
Rhetoric.  He  urges  with  great  force  that  the  preacher  may 
look  for,  and  should  have,  in  preaching,  what  he  calls  "par- 
tial inspiration."  While  this  term  may  be  objectionable,  he 
is  earnest  and  right  in  urging  dependence  upon  the  help  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  preaching. 

Shedd's  "  Homiletics  and  Pastoral  Duties  "  is  an  excellent 
work.  It  discusses  certain  topics  with  the  author's  well- 
known  power  of  analysis  and  vigor  of  statement.  It  is  an 
admirable  book  to  be  read  by  those  who  are  acquainted  with 
the  subject  in  general,  or  to  be  studied  in  connection  with 
some  systematic  treatise. 

"Homiletics,"  by  Prof.  James  M.  Hoppin,  is  a  revised 
and  enlarged  edition  of  the  homiletical  matter  contained  in 
the  earlier  work  on  "  Preaching  and  the  Pastoral  Ofifice." 
The  sketch  of  the  History  of  Preaching  is  quite  copious, 
but  altogether  fragmentary.  The  arrangement  is  somewhat 
faulty  and  inconvenient ;  but  the  particular  topics  are  dis- 
cussed with  marked  ability  and  sound  judgment,  and  show  a 
good  acquaintance  with  the  literature  of  the  subject. 

There  are  three  very  valuable  works  on  the  general  subject 
of  Homiletics  by  the  late  Prof.  Austin  Phelps  of  Andover. 
The  first  of  these  is  the  "  Theory  of  Preaching."  It  is  the 
fruit  of  long-continued  instruction  in  the  Andover  Seminary. 
The  work  was  made  on  the  principle  of  answering  questions 
that  had  at  one  time  or  another  been  raised  by  the  students. 
The  result  is  a  unique  volume,  crowded  with  good  thoughts 
and  valuable  hints,  but  it  is  not  a  complete  or  well-organized 
treatise.     He  spends   too  much  time,  proportionately,   on 


548  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

some  topics,  and  wholly  omits  the  consideration  of  others. 
Those  who  are  already  acquainted  with  the  subject  will  find 
here  very  much  that  is  fresh  and  useful.  The  style  is  clear, 
vivid,  and  strong.  ''  Men  and  Books  "  treats  of  some  subjects 
omitted  in  the  "Theory  of  Preaching,"  giving  valuable  sug- 
gestions as  to  the  study  of  human  nature  and  of  literature. 
It  is  a  very  excellent  treatise  for  the  young  preacher  and 
pastor.  "  Enghsh  Style  in  Public  Discourse,"  treats  of  Style 
with  especial  reference  to  the  pulpit,  and  is  a  book  of  great 
merit.  These  three  books  by  Professor  Phelps  constitute 
one  of  the  most  useful  additions  to  the  literature  of  Homi- 
letics  in  recent  years,  and  will  well  repay  careful  and  repeated 
study. 

"Sacred  Rhetoric,"  by  Dr.  R.  L.  Dabney  (Presbyterian),  is 
a  valuable  and  suggestive  treatise  on  the  theory  of  preaching, 
and  contains  many  judicious  observations  and  sound  principles. 

"The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon,"  by  the  Rev.  John  W. 
Etter,  pubHshed  by  the  United  Brethren  Publishing  House 
at  Dayton,  Ohio,  is  a  copious  and  practical  treatise,  very 
sensible  and  complete,  but  not  strikingly  original. 

"Manual  of  Preaching,"  by  Prof.  Franklin  W.  Fisk  of 
Chicago  (Congregational)  Theological  Seminary,  is  an  able 
text-book,  clear,  sensible,  and  just. 

"  Christ's  Trumpet  Call  to  the  Ministry,"  by  Dr.  D.  S. 
Gregory,  while  not  a  homiletical  treatise,  contains  much 
valuable  suggestion  as  to  the  subjects  and  method  of  the 
preaching  demanded  in  these  times.  It  is  a  strong  book, 
full  of  good  sense,  and  is  especially  helpful  in  meeting  some 
of  the  tendencies  of  the  age  away  from  the  simplicity  of  the 
gospel. 

6.  The  Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching.  —  In  1871  a  lec- 
tureship on  preaching  was  founded  in  connection  with  Yale 
Divinity  School  by  Mr.  Henry  W.  Sage  of  Brooklyn,  a  mem- 
ber of  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  Plymouth  Church.  In  honor 
of  Mr.  Beecher's  distinguished  father,  it  was  named  the 
Lyman  Beecher  Lectureship  on  Preaching.  Every  year 
since  that  time  some  distinguished  minister  of  America,  or 
from  abroad,  has  delivered  a  series  of  lectures  on  this  foun- 
dation.    Many  of  them  have  been  published,  and  they  con- 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  549 

stitute  a  valuable  series  of  lectures  upon  the  various  aspects 
of  preaching.  As  was  to  have  been  expected,  the  volumes 
are  quite  varied  in  character  and  contents,  and  very  unequal 
in  value.  It  will  scarcely  be  necessary  to  pass  them  all  in 
review  here ;  only  a  few  of  the  more  notable  ones  will  be 
singled  out  for  special  mention. 

First  in  order  of  time  are  the  three  series  by  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  who  delivered  the  lectures  for  the  first  three  years. 
The  first  series  related  to  Preaching,  the  second  to  Pastoral 
Work,  and  the  third  to  Subjects  of  Preaching.  The  first  and 
second  volumes  are  of  great  value,  fresh,  often  very  striking, 
and  everywhere  suggestive.  The  works,  however,  are  char- 
acterized by  Mr.  Beecher's  fondness  for  half-truths,  and  they 
need  to  be  read  with  discrimination. 

The  most  valuable  of  the  Yale  course  are  the  "  Lectures 
on  Preaching"  by  Phillips  Brooks.  The  great  preacher's 
noble  characteristics  appear  in  this  volume.  It  is  full  of 
sound  sense,  deep  spirituality,  and  eminently  helpful  sugges- 
tion.    The  style  is  very  agreeable  and  striking. 

The  "  Nine  Lectures  on  Preaching,"  by  the  late  R.  W. 
Dale  of  England,  while  very  unequal  in  their  treatment, 
contain  much  that  is  interesting  and  useful.  The  style  is 
somewhat  diffuse. 

The  volumes  by  Dr.  Wm.  M.  Taylor,  Bishop  Matthew 
Simpson,  Dr.  John  Hall,  Dr.  E.  G.  Robinson,  are  all  of 
considerable  practical  value  and  interest. 

The  "  Lectures  "  by  Dr.  Nathaniel  J.  Burton,  delivered  in 
1884,  to  which  have  been  added  some  other  lectures  and 
writings,  is  a  unique  book.  The  author  was  a  very  original 
and  powerful  man,  and  while  one  would  dissent  from  many 
of  his  statements,  his  book  is  a  suggestive  and  highly  stimu- 
lating work.  His  lectures  on  Originality  in  the  Preacher,  on 
Imagination,  and  on  Assimilation,  are  of  especial  value. 

The  Lectures  of  more  recent  years  pay  attention  rather  to 
the  subjects  of  preaching,  and  the  adaptation  of  preaching 
to  the  times.  Among  these  should  be  mentioned  "The 
Preacher  and  His  Place,"  by  Dr.  David  H.  Greer  of  St. 
Bartholomew's  Church,  New  York.  These  lectures  are  agree- 
ably written,  and  while  not  very  strong  or  striking,  are  useful 


550  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

and  suggestive.  "The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt,"  by 
Dr.  Henry  Van  Dyke,  is  written  in  admirable  style,  and 
contains  very  useful  suggestions  as  to  the  sort  of  preaching 
needed  for  the  times.  He  goes  too  far,  however,  in  some 
points,  conceding  more  to  the  spirit  of  the  age  than  would 
be  thought  advisable.  "  The  Cure  of  Souls  "  by  Dr.  John 
Watson,  better  known  by  his  literary  name  of  "Ian  Mac- 
laren,"  is  a  genial,  agreeably  written,  and  suggestive  book, 
but  is  marred  by  some  serious  errors. 

"  Verbum  Dei,"  the  series  for  1893,  by  the  Rev.  Robert  F. 
Horton  of  England,  is  noteworthy,  as  having  inculcated  the 
opinion  that  preachers  of  to-day  have  a  right  to  expect,  and 
should  seek,  a  real  inspiration  of  God  as  much  as  the  Proph- 
ets and  the  Apostles.  There  is  much  in  the  book  that 
is  good  and  striking,  but  this  unscriptural  and  misleading 
position  is  a  serious  objection. 


III.  WORKS   ON    SUBJECTS   RELATED   TO 
HOMILETICS. 

1.  History  of  Preaching.  —  Some  works  on  this  subject 
should  be  mentioned.  The  treatment  of  the  history  in 
Hoppin's  "  Homiletics "  has  already  been  noticed,  and  is 
valuable.  Moule's  "  Christian  Oratory  During  the  First  Five 
Centuries  "  is  an  excellent  little  volume.  Neale's  "  Mediae- 
val Preachers  and  Preaching "  is  interesting,  but  not  very 
profound.  Broadus'  "  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Preach- 
ing" were  delivered  at  Newton  Theological  Institution  in 
1876,  and  published  soon  afterwards.  "Lectures  on  the 
History  of  Preaching,"  by  Prof  John  Ker  of  Scotland,  were 
published  after  his  death.  These  lectures  are  somewhat 
fragmentary,  but  are  well-written,  and  full  of  useful  informa- 
tion on  the  topics  and  times  of  which  they  treat.  More 
complete  treatises  on  the  History  of  Preaching  are  found  in 
German,  and  some,  on  particular  epochs  and  times,  in  various 
languages.  A  thorough  and  complete  history  of  preaching 
for  all  times  and  countries  is  still  a  desideratum. 

2.  On  Oratory.  —  "  Oratory  and  Orators,"  by  Prof.  William 
Matthews,  contains  much  that  is  interesting  and  suggestive. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  551 

The  "  History  of  Oratory,"  by  Prof.  Lorenzo  Sears  of  Brown 
University,  is  a  very  valuable  and  comprehensive,  though 
brief  discussion  of  the  subject.  It  is  much  more  complete 
than  would  seem  to  be  possible  in  so  brief  a  treatise,  and  is 
well  worth  study.  "  The  Attic  Orators,''  by  Prof.  R.  C.  Jebb, 
is  the  most  learned  work  upon  the  particular  epoch  indicated, 
and  is  a  book  of  permanent  value.  Goodrich's  "British 
Eloquence  "  is  an  admirable  collection  of  speeches,  with  in- 
troductions and  notes,  enabling  one  to  understand  them,  and 
very  useful  to  the  student  of  eloquence.  There  are  various 
collections  of  speeches  and  the  works  of  the  great  orators, 
especially  English  and  American,  which  need  not  here  bfi 
particularly  mentioned,  that  in  a  general  way  it  would  repay 
the  student  to  become  acquainted  with. 

3.  Logic.  —  The  two  great  works  for  the  English  student 
on  Logic  are  the  "  Lectures  "  of  Sir  William  Hamilton  for 
Deductive  Logic,  and  the  '*  System  of  Logic,"  by  John  Stuart 
MiU,  for  Inductive  Logic.  "  The  Theory  of  Thought,"  by 
Prof.  Noah  K.  Davis  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  is  a  pro- 
found discussion  of  the  Aristotelian  and  Hamiltonian  systems 
of  Deductive  Logic,  with  the  addition  of  much  that  is  of 
value  by  the  author  himself.  *' The  Principles  of  Science," 
by  W.  Stanley  Jevons,  is  that  author's  most  complete  treatise 
on  the  general  subject  of  Inductive  Logic,  and  contains 
much  of  value.  Sidgwick  on  "  Fallacies,"  though  written  in 
the  interest  of  the  Evolutionary  Theory,  is  a  very  thoughtful 
treatment  of  that  particular  subject. 

All  these  are  books  for  the  more  advanced  students.  Of 
the  more  elementary  works,  the  following  may  be  mentioned 
as  useful :  Whately's  "  Logic,"  though  inadequate,  and  in 
some  respects  out  of  date,  is  still  worthy  of  study,  and  has 
not  been  wholly  superseded  by  more  recent  productions. 
For  the  beginner,  the  clearest,  completest,  and  most  useful 
treatises  are  those  by  Prof.  N.  K.  Davis  on  Inductive  and 
Deductive  Logic,  respectively.  These  two  little  volumes 
contain  the  very  cream  of  the  author's  thinking  and  teaching 
upon  this  subject.  They  are  admirable  books.  Besides 
these  may  be  mentioned  Hill's  edition  of  Jevons,  Schuyler, 
Fowler,  and  McCosh,  all  college  text-books.    To  these  may 


552  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

be  added  as  an  interesting  book  the  "  Grammar  of  Assent  '^ 
by  Cardinal  Newman,  in  which  he  discusses  the  reasoning 
powers  on  the  basis  of  our  assenting  to  propositions. 

4.  English  and  Style.  —  There  is  such  a  multitude  of 
text-books  on  this  subject  that  the  bare  mention  even  of  the 
best  would  itself  fill  a  volume.  Only  a  few  among  the  best, 
therefore,  will  be  noticed. 

Of  English  Grammars  the  great  works  are  two  German 
books,  both  of  which  have  been  translated.  One  is  by 
Maetzner  and  the  other  by  Koch.  These  are  very  thorough- 
going and  scientific  treatises  upon  the  subject  of  English 
Grammar.  There  is  also  a  very  useful  and  interesting  work 
by  Prof.  Samuel  Ramsey,  "  English  Language  and  English 
Grammar."  To  these  may  be  added  Whitney's  "  Essentials 
of  English  Grammar,"  Bain's  "  Higher  English  Grammar," 
and  Morris's  "  Elements  of  Historical  Grammar." 

There  are  works  which  treat  of  errors  and  the  proper 
writing  of  English,  many  of  which  deserve  notice.  "  Vulgar- 
isms and  Other  Errors  of  Speech,"  published  by  Claxton, 
Philadelphia,  is  a  good  help.  Meredith's  "  Every  Day  Errors 
of  Speech  "  is  good.  "  English  Lessons  for  EngHsh  People," 
by  Seeley  and  Abbott,  and  "  How  to  Parse,"  by  E.  A.  Abbott, 
are  also  helpful  in  securing  accuracy  in  writing  English. 

A  few  special  treatises  on  the  English  language  should  be 
noticed :  Marsh's  "  Lectures  on  the  English  Language,"  in 
the  new  edition;  A.  S.  Hill,  ''Our  English,"  in  the  Chau- 
tauqua series  ;  Oliphant's  "  Standard  English,"  and  the  sev- 
eral volumes  of  Richard  Grant  White.  "  English  Prose,"  by 
Prof.  John  Earle  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  is  a  great 
book,  treating  of  the  subjects,  elements,  history,  and  usage 
of  English  Prose.  The  book  will  repay  earnest  study.  On 
English  Philology,  the  "  Etymological  Dictionary  "  of  W.  W. 
Skeat  is  very  valuable.  Professor  Earle  has  also  a  valuable 
book  on  "  English  Philology."  In  general  studies  Smith's 
"  Synonyms  Discriminated "  is  perhaps  the  best  on  that 
subject.  Roget's  "  Thesaurus  "  (in  the  latest  edition)  is  still 
a  work  of  value.  Likewise  the  little  books  of  Archbishop 
Trench,  though  somewhat  out  of  date,  are  still  worth  reading, 
—  on  "Word?  and  Their  Uses,"  and  on  "  English  Past  and 


BIBLIOGRAPHY.  553 

Present."  Bishop  Fallows  has  a  useful  compendium  of 
"  Synonyms  and  Antonyms,"  with  some  other  matters  added. 
There  is  also  a  recent  book  of  "  Synonyms  "  by  James  C. 
Femald,  published  by  Funk  and  Wagnalls.  Mention  should 
also  be  made  of  Soule's  "  Synonyms." 

5.  Delivery  and  Elocution.  —  "  The  Art  of  Extempore 
Speaking,"  by  Bautain,  contains  some  valuable  suggestions ; 
also  "  The  Spoken  Word,"  by  Thomas  J.  Potter,  is  good. 
"Pulpit  Elocution,"  by  William  Russell,  contains  many 
useful  and  practical  suggestions ;  and  "  Vocal  Culture,"  re- 
edited  by  the  Rev.  Francis  T.  Russell,  is  a  useful  and  practi- 
cal treatise.  "  Extempore  Speech,"  by  Pittenger,  is  useful. 
"Extempore  Preaching,"  by  Wilder  Smith,  has  much  good 
sense,  and  is  valuable.  "  Preaching  Without  Notes,"  lectures 
by  Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs,  is  also  very  useful  on  extemporaneous 
preaching. 


INDEX, 


Accommodation  of  texts,  32,  36. 

Acknowledgment,  when  to  be  made, 
144. 

Action,  in  delivery,  496;  in  children, 
498;  in  men  of  different  nations, 
499;  rules  for,  507. 

Ad  Clerum,  546,  457,  note,  530, 
note. 

Affectation,  to  be  avoided,  482,  4S3. 

Alexander,  J.  W.,  Thoughts  on 
Preaching,  547  ;  striking  remark  of, 
27:  on  doctrine,  -jt^  ;  on  special  rather 
than  general  subjects,  79 ;  on  poli- 
tics, 91  ;  on  study  of  the  Bible,  123, 
note;  on  originality,  132;  on  divi- 
sions, 284  ;  on  reading  sermons,  449 ; 
extemporizing,  473,  note. 

Allegories  of  Scripture,  68. 

Amusements,  how  to  preach  on,  91. 

Analogy,  defined,  192;  metaphors  rest 
on,  194;  argument  from,  195;  use 
of,  196. 

Analogy  of  faith,  t^,  note,  197,  note. 

Analysis,  overdone,  289,  note. 

Anecdotes,  use  of  in  preaching,  238, 

Anglo-Saxon  words,  perspicuity  of, 
366 ;  relative  force  of,  386. 

Antithesis,  391. 

Apologetics,  use  of,  82. 

Apologies,  271. 

Apostrophe,  400. 

Application,  main  thing,  245  ;  by  re- 
marks, 246 ;  by  practical  suggestions, 
248  ;  persuasion  a  chief  part  of,  249  ; 
part  of  conclusion,  300. 

A  priori^  definition  of,  iSo;  Kant's 
use  of,  184. 

Argument,  men  fond  of,  168;  impor- 
tance in  preaching,  169;  prelimi- 
naries to,  172;  principal  varieties, 
180  ;  forms,  204 ;  order,  216;  general 
suggestions,  220. 

Argumentum  adhominem,  207,  211. 


Anstotle,  Rhetoric,  543 ;  on  narration, 
157;  on  induction,  191;  on  familiar 
arguments,  222 ;  on  passions,  255, 
note  ;  on  style,  341,  356,  378,  405. 

Arrangement,  importance  of,  258 ; 
helps  persuasion,  263 ;  elements  of, 
264. 

Art  and  literature,  study  of,  427. 

Artificiality,  13;  cknger  of,  14. 

Athenians,  their  estimate  of  oratory, 
481. 

Augustine,  De  Doctrina  Christiana, 
545;  quoted,  5;  on  grace,  99;  oq 
plagiarism,  138,  note ;  on  study  of 
models,  354;  saying  of,  541. 

Authorityand  testimony  distinguished, 
197;  of  the  Fathers,  202;  of  the 
Scriptures,  203. 


Bain,  Composition  and  Rhetoric,  544. 

Bautain,  The  Art  of  Extempore  Speak- 
ing, 553- 

Barrow,  his  analysis,  288. 

Barrows,  Companion  to  the  Bible,  68, 
note. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  Yale  Lectures, 
549;  quoted,  31,  160,  227;  sources 
of  his  illustrations,  231. 

Belief  and  disbelief,  204. 

Bible,  language  of,  43  ;  division  into 
chapters  and  verses,  48  ;  Paragraph, 
49  ;  history  of,  93  ;  preacher's  chief 
study,  122;  standard  of  appeal,  171; 
model  of  style,  353. 

Biography,  as  a  help  in  study  of 
Homiletics,  18 ;  as  a  source  of  illus- 
trations, 237. 

Blunders,  468. 

Bourdaloue,  manner  of  preaching,  452. 

Brevity,  or  conciseness  of  style,  374, 

^393,395-       ,    . 
Bright,  on  conclusion,  298. 


556 


INDEX. 


Broaddus,  Andrew,  expository  preach- 
ing, 327. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  Lectures  on  Preach- 
ing, 549;  selecting  texts,  31 ;  strict- 
ness of  interpretation,  34;  originality, 
135;  current  events,  237,  note;  re- 
citation, 450. 

Brougham,  careful  preparation,  298. 

Buchanan,  on  analogy,  192,  note. 

Buffon,  on  transitions,  295 ;  on  style, 

340-       „ 
Bunyan,  58,  note. 
Burden  of  proof,  174  ff. 
Burgess,  The  Art  of  Preaching,  546. 
Burnet,  History  of  the  Reformation, 

435- 
Burton,   N.    J.,  Lectures,   549;  129, 

note. 
Butler,  Bishop,  Analogy,  196 ;  on  habit, 

253- 

Campbell,  George,  Rhetoric,  544 ; 
Pulpit  Eloquence,  546 ;  on  analogy, 
196;  on  excitation,  256;  on  style, 
361,  382,  387;  on  emphasis,  389. 

Cause  and  occasion,  distinguished, 
186. 

Chalmers,  Dr.,  use  of  English  version, 
40 ;  on  Romans,  ^^y ;  varied  illus- 
trations, 277 ;  why  he  read  his 
sermons,  436. 

Chaplain,  Roger  de  Coverley's,  139. 

Charity,  spurious,  83. 

Chaucer,  quoted,  129. 

Children,  sermons  to,  109  ff  (speci- 
mens mentioned  in  note,  no); 
critics,  113;  when  preach  to,  114; 
observation  of,  233 ;  fault  of  ser- 
mons to,  244,  note. 

Choirs,  use  of,  527. 

Christ,  types  of,  68;  teachings  of,  72; 
teacher  of  morals,  86;  chief  sources 
of  his  illustrations,  232. 

Chrysostom,  On  the  Priesthood,  545  ; 
on  grace,  99;  on  plagiarism,  138; 
expository  sermons,  333,  334 ;  Homi- 
lies, 338. 

Cicero,  works  on  oratory,  543;  advice 
to  young  orator,  4 ;  on  passion,  254; 
referred  to,  287,  note,  289;  on  elo- 
quence, 344;  on  style,  350  ;  on  divi- 
sions, 310;  letters  of,  355;  on  false 
taste,  404,  note ;  on  delivery,  483; 
dispute  with  Roscius,  496. 

Clarke,  Dr.  Samuel,  referred  to,  181. 

Claude,  Essay  on  the  Composition  of 
a  Sermon,  545. 

Clay,  Henry,  early  training  of,  9. 

Commentators,  when  to  be  mentioned, 
156. 


Commonplace-book,  use  of,  24,  126. 

Commonplace,  ground  of  eloquence,  7. 

Comparison,  use  of,  167,  257. 

Conclusion  of  sermon,  298 ;  impas- 
sioned, 301 ;  length  of,  303. 

Concordance,  Greek  and  Hebrew,  use 
of,  66. 

Coquerel,  Observations  Pratiques  sur 
la  Predication,  546;  on  borrowing, 
142;  on  intelligibility,  262;  on  ar- 
rangement, 265 ;  on  reading  ser- 
mons, 446. 

Countenance,  expression  of,  in  de- 
livery, 500. 

Cowper,  on  affectation,  483;  descrip- 
tion of  preacher,  539. 

Dabney,  Sacred  Rhetoric,  548 ;  on 
simplicity,  415;  on  public  prayer, 

535- 
Dale,  Nine  Lectures  on   Preaching, 

549- 

Davis,  Noah  K.,  Works  on  Logic, 
551;  on  induction,  186,  note,  188, 
221. 

Day,  Art  of  Discourse,  544;  on  inven- 
tion, 153,  note;  referred  to,  182, 183, 
184  ;  on  excitation,  253. 

Decorum,  pulpit,  C38. 

Deduction,  defined,"  186;  use  of,  187. 

Definition,  meaning  of  term,  163,  164; 
importance  of  clear,  165. 

Delivery  of  sermons,  general  remarks 
on,  431 ;  importance  of,  477;  works 
on,  477 ;  causes  of  failure  in,  478  ; 
requisites  to  effective,  481. 

Demosthenes,  notice  of,  12;  earnest- 
ness of,  254;  saying  of  "Action," 
477. 

De  Quincey  on  style,  344,  377;  on 
English  grammar,  347. 

Description,  preacher's  use  of,  160; 
learning  to  use,  161. 

Dilemma,  206. 

Discussion,  or  body  of  discourse,  276. 

Divisions,  of  sermon,  .?8i ;  historical 
allusions  to,  282 ;  number,  285 ;  ad- 
vantages of  three,  286 ;  character, 
288;  relation  to  each  other,  289; 
order,  291 ;  statement,  292 ;  an- 
nouncement. 293  ;  in  rhymes,  293  ; 
transition  from  one  to  another, 
294. 

Doctrines,  staple  of  preaching,  76; 
great,  to  be  preached  on,  78 ;  spe- 
cific aspects  of,  80;  examples,  81; 
history  of,  125. 

Dramatism,  401. 

Drummond,  Natural  Law  in  the  Spir- 
itual World,  197,  note. 


INDEX. 


557 


Earle,  English  Prose,  and  English 
Philology,  552. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  245,  436. 

Elegance  of  style,  general  characteris- 
tics, 405  ;  in  different  kinds  of  com- 
position, 406 ;  preacher  not  to  aim 
at  exclusively,  407  ;  not  to  avoid, 
408;  what  it  depends  on,  410-419. 

Eloquence,  definition  of,  5,  264;  a 
practical  thing,  5  ;  a  serious  thing, 
6 ;  commonplace,  the  ground  of,  7. 

Emphasis  in  reading,  516. 

Energy  of  style,  380 ;  chief  requisites 
to,  381;  how  attained,  382-401; 
mistakes  as  to,  402. 

English  language,  346;  works  on,  348. 

English  version,  use  of,  40,  326. 

Epithets,  use  of,  384. 

Errors,  of  Scripture  text,  29,  note; 
of  doctrine,  chief  power  of,  83;  often 
to  be  unnoticed,  85. 

Ethical  philosophy,  125. 

Etter,  The  Preacher  and  his  Sermon, 
548. 

Everett,   Edward,   the    speaking  of, 

453- 

Evidences  of  Christianity,  Robert 
Hall  on,  82  ;  how  treated,  83 ;  in- 
ternal and  experimental,  $2' 

Exclamation,  401. 

Ex  concesso,  argument,  206. 

Exegesis,  use  of,  155. 

Exemplification,  165. 

Exhortation,  concluding,  302. 

Experience,  subject  of  sermons,  97 ; 
speaking  of  one's  own,  98;  relig- 
ious, 233. 

Explanation,  often  needed,  153;  cau- 
tions in  reference  to,  154;  of  sub- 
jects, 163. 

Exposition,  continuous,  325 ;  Chry- 
sostom's  manner  of,  333. 

Expository  preaching,  advantages  of, 
318;  objections,  319;  management 
of,  321 ;  unity  necessary  to,  323 ; 
details  in,  329;  parallel  passages 
in,  330;  difficult  passages,  331 ;  ex- 
amples, 337. 

Expression  of  countenance,  500 ;  in 
reading,  515. 

Extemporaneous  speaking,  definition 
of,  456;  advantages  of,  458-464; 
splendid  thoughts  struck  out,  460; 
sermon  can  be  altered,  461 ;  delivery 
natural,  462  ;  disadvantages  of,  464- 
470 ;  difficulties  of,  468  ;  success 
of,  468 ;  general  and  specific  prepa- 
ration for,  470. 

Eye,  power  of  orator's,  445,  501. 


Fables,  use  of  in  preaching,  239. 

Failure,  susceptibility  to,  468. 

Fairbairn,  Hermeneutical  Manual,  54, 
note. 

Fancy  and  imagination,  421. 

Fathers,  authority  of  the,  202. 

Feelings  must  be  excited,  252. 

Fenelon,  Dialogues  on  Eloquence, 
545  ;  referred  to,  282. 

Fernald,  Synonyms,  553. 

Figures  of  speech,  works  on,  396, 
note;  conducive  to  energy,  396;  to 
elegance,  414 ;  principal  ones  used 
in  preaching,  397  ff. 

Fisk,  Manual  of  Preaching,  548. 

Fleming,  Vocabulary  of  Philosophy, 
184,  note. 

Foster,  John,  referred  to,  25,  note; 
i74>  358;  on  use  of  Scripture 
phrases,  410. 

Free  speaking  from  written  prepara- 
tion, 454. 

Freshness  in  preaching,  146;  how  at- 
tained, 148,  149. 

Fuller,  Andrew,  his  interpretation  of 
Scripture,  40 ;  influence  of,  52 ;  as 
an  expositor,  326 ;  exposition  of 
Genesis,  338  ;  insensibility  to  art, 
427. 

Fuller,  Richard,  use  of  incidents,  237  ; 
on  transitions,  296. 

Genung,  John  F.,  Rhetoric,  544;  re- 
ferred to,  258,  note,  264,  note. 

Gesture,  in  speaking,  504-509 ;  in 
reading,  516. 

Gilmore,  J.    H.,  Art  of  Expression, 

544- 

Gladstone,  483. 

Goethe,  prose  style,  343,  note;  on 
actor  and  orator,  479,  480. 

Goodrich,  British  Eloquence,  5^1. 

Gospels,  alleged  discrepancies  m,  199. 

Gracchus,  Caius,  485. 

Grammars,  English,  use  of,  349. 

Gregory,  Dr.  D.  S.,  work  on  preach- 
ing, 548;  referred  to,  108,  note. 

Greenleaf  on  Evidence,  176,  note. 

Greer,  The  Preacher  and  His  Place, 

549- 
Gresley,  Treatise  on  Preaching,  546. 
Grimm,  Jacob,  on  English  language, 

347- 

Hagenbach,  on  Homiletics,  545. 

Hall,  Robert,  on  evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity, 82;  referred  to,  278,  455; 
fond  of  specific  subjects,  309;  style 
of,  352  ;  voice,  484. 

Hamilton,  Sir  Wm.,  Logic,  551. 


558 


INDEX. 


Hands,  use  of  in  speaking,  504. 
Happiness,  a  proper  motive,  250. 
Harrison,  Gessner,  anecdote  of,  332. 
Hell,  Scripture  teaching  as  to,  68. 
Henry,  Patrick,  early  training  of,  9. 
Hervey,   Christian  Rhetoric,  547;  on 

preaching  for    practice,    14,   note ; 

obsolete  errors,   209 ;    referred  to, 

433- 
Hill,  A.  S.,  on  Rhetoric,  544. 
Hill,  D.  J.,  The  Science  of  Rhetoric, 

,  544.      .     . 

History,  in  interpretation,  71  ;  exam- 
ples of  use,  72 ;  Bible,  93  ;  neglected 
in  preaching,  95  ;  of  Christianity, 
96 ;  source  of  illustration,  236. 

Holiness,  desire  of,  a  motive,  250. 

Homiletical  habit,  122,  note. 

Homiletics,  meaning  and  origin  of 
term,  15  ;  study  of,  17. 

Hood,  E.  P.,  works  on  preaching, 
546 ;  quoted,  468. 

Hoppin,  Homiletics,  547;  definition 
of  Homiletics,  16;  on  text,  20,  note; 
on  motto  texts,  37 ;  on  argument, 
169;  on  introduction,  269,  272. 

Horace,  290. 

Horton,  R.  F.,  Verbum  Dei,  550. 

Howe,  John,  use  of  texts,  20. 

Howson,  Dean,  140,  note. 

Hudibras,  quoted,  209. 

Hunt,  T.  W.,  work  on  Rhetoric,  544. 

Huxley,  200,  note. 

Hymns,  quotation  of,  239 ;  importance 
of  selecting  good,  519;  supply  of, 
520;  works  on,  521,  522,  note;  best 
writers  of,  522;  the  properties  of  a 
good,  522  ;  connection  with  sermon, 
523;  reading,  524;  the  rhythm  of, 
525  ;  music  of,  527. 

Hyperbole,  398  ;  example^  of,  399. 

Illustration,  defined,  225  ;  uses  of, 
226;  importance  of,  228;  works  on, 
229,  note ;  sources  of,  229-242 ;  may 
be  invented,  234;  cautions  as  to 
employing,  242. 

Imagination,  use  in  exciting  feeling, 
256  ;  uses  to  orator,  420 ;  works  on, 
422;  historical,  425  ;  means  of  culti- 
vating, 426;  inspiring  examples  of, 
428,  429;  disciplining,  430. 

Imitation,  conscious  and  unconscious, 
12  ;  instances  of,  13,  note. 

Indolence,  a  foe  to  originality,  136. 

Induction  defined,  188;  hasty,  189; 
safe,  190;  Aristotle  on,  191. 

Inferences,  part  of  application,  247. 

Interpretation,  necessity  of  strict,  32, 
33;    sources    of   error   in,  38-55;  I 


examples  of  wrong,  55-64 ;  treatisra 
on,  65 ;  suggestions  for,  64-74. 

Interrogation,  401. 

Introduction,  propriety  of,  266;  object, 
267, 268 ;  sources,  268-272 ;  qualities, 
272 ;  Vinet  on,  274,  276;  not  too 
long,  275. 

Invention  and  its  aids,  11 8-120;  a 
source  of  illustration,  234. 

Irony,  allowable,  212. 

Jay,  plans  of  sermons,  317,  note. 

Jebb,  The  Attic  Orators,  551. 

"Jesus  of  Nazareth"  (lectures  by 
the  author),  201,  note. 

Jeter,  J.  B.,  anecdote  of,  4. 

Jevons,  The  Principles  of  Science,  551. 

Judas,  sermon  on,  315. 

Julian,  the  apostate,  orders  philos- 
ophers to  imitate  preaching,  i. 

Kant,  use  of  a  priori,  184. 

Kidder,  Homiletics,  546 ;  funera'  dis- 
courses, 103;  invention,  119;  con- 
clusion, 303. 

Knowledge,  requisite  to  good  preach- 
ing, 8 ;  all  kinds  useful,  122;  has 
three  dimensions,  137. 

Koch,  on  English  Grammar,  552. 

Language,  imperfection  of,  38 ;  Scrip- 
ture, 42-46;  study  of,  affects  style, 
345  ;  acquisition  of,  345,  note ;  books 
on  English,  348. 

Letters,  familiar,  benefit  of,  355; 
Cicero's,  355. 

Liddon,  Canon,  treatment  of  objec- 
tions, 210,  note. 

Life,  human,  source  of  illustration,  231 ; 
our  Lord's  references  to,  232. 

Literature,  a  source  of  illustration,  239 ; 
study  of,  affects  style,  350-354. 

Logic,  study  of,  recommended,  170, 
215;  works  on,  216,  note. 

Lord,  on  figurative  language,  68,  note; 
lecturer  on  history,  94. 

Love,  the  strongest  motive,  251. 

Loyola,  preaching  of,  254. 

Maetzner,  English   Grammar,  552. 

Massillon,  opening  words  of  sermon, 
273,  note. 

Materials  of  preaching,  acquired  before- 
hand, 120;  from  Scriptures,  122; 
from  Systematic  Theology,  123; 
other  reading,  125;  nature  and  life, 
127;  provided  at  the  time,  128; 
original,  129-137;  borrowed,  137- 
146 ;  special,  152. 


INDEX. 


559 


Matthews,  Orators  and  Oratory,  556; 

on  extemporizing,  461. 
McCosh,  James,  Logic,  551 ;  183,  note. 
Melody  of  voice,  485,  491. 
Meredith,  Everyday  Errors  of  Speech, 

552. 
Metaphor,  397. 
Methods  of  preaching,  historical  notices 

of,  432. 
Metres,  books  on,  526,  note. 
Mill,  J.  S,,  Logic,  551;  on  analogy, 

193;  on  fallacies,  216,  note. 
Miracles,  proof  of,  200,  201. 
Misapplied  texts,  examples  of,  55-64. 
Monod,  on  The  Delivery  of  Sermons, 

Motives,  249. 
Motto-texts,  37,  38. 
Moule,  H.  M.,  on  History  of  Preach- 
ing, 550- 

Narration,  preacher's  use  of,  157. 

Narratives,  of  the  Bible,  322 ;  sermons 
on,  323. 

Natural  gifts,  8. 

Naturalness,  must  be  learned,  14. 

Nature,  source  of  illustration,  230; 
aid  to  imagination,  426. 

Neale,  J.  M.,  Mediaeval  Preaching, 
550. 

Neander,  on  reading  sermons,  434. 

Negative,  not  required  to  prove,  174. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  Grammar  of  As- 
sent, 552;  on  earnestness,  254. 

News  of  the  day,  how  used,  237. 

Newspapers,  351. 

New  Testament,  Revised,  28, 66,  note ; 
Moody's,  74,  note. 

Novels,  how  to  read,  428. 

Objections,  refutation  of,  219. 

Obscurity,  362. 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  saying  of,  5. 

Oddity,  131. 

Old  Testament,  not  to  be  neglected, 
28. 

Orator  and  actor,  478,  479- 

Orators,  Indian,  9;  great  secular,  353. 

Origen,  his  spiritualizing,  5 1 . 

Originality,  129;  absolute,  129;  rela- 
tive, 130;  affectation  of,  131;  why 
desirable,  1^2;  obstacles  to,  133. 

Original  Scriptures,  advantages  of, 
41 ;  in  expository  preaching,  326. 

Otto,  work  on  Homiletics,  545 ;  on 
divisions,  286. 

Paley,  Horse  Paulinae,  200. 
Palmer,  work  on  Homiletics,  545 ;  on 


text  sermons,  313;  on  reading  ser- 
mons, 447,  448. 

Papers  on  Preaching,  546 ;  quoted,  241. 

Parables,  interpretation  of  our  Lord's, 

54- 

Paradox,  sometimes  lawful,  131. 

Paragraph  Bibles,  49,  note. 

Paragraphs,  importance  of,  371  ;  how 
to  make,  372. 

Parallel  passages,  quotation  of,  330. 

Particles,  use  of,  273- 

Pascal,  on  plagiarism,  143,  note. 

Paul,  the  Apostle,  plain-speaking,  85 ; 
style  of,  342 ;  language  of,  399. 

Personification,  400. 

Perspicuity  of  style,  361;  necessary, 
362 ;  explanation  as  to,  363 ;  re- 
quisites to,  365-377. 

Persuasion,  use  of,  249 ;  motives  used 
in,  250. 

Peter's  denial,  sermons  on,  313. 

Phelps,  Austin,  works  on  Homiletics, 
544,  547;  definition  of  Homiletics, 
16;  on  accommodation,  36 ;  motto- 
texts,  37  ;  revivals,  108,  note ; 
plagiarism,  146;  application,  257, 
note  ;  proposition,  281 ;  conclusion, 
301 ;  homiletical  structure,  306; 
force  of  feeling,  381. 

Piety,  requisite  to  effective  preaching, 

/• 

Pilgrim's  Progress,  specially  com- 
mended, 239. 

Pittenger,    on     Extempore    Speech, 

Plagiarism,    defined,   137  ;    ludicrous 

and  serious  effects  of,  140. 
Plan  of    sermon,    276 ;    simple    and 

fresh,  278  ;  examples  of,  279,  note. 
Poetry  and  preaching,  406. 
Poets,  study  of,  428. 
Points,  speaker  to  fix  his  mind  on, 

373.  ,.  , 

Polemics,  as  subjects  of  sermons,  83, 

84-       . 
Posture,  m  speaking,  501. 
Potter,  Thos.  J.,  works  on  preaching, 

546 ;  on  stating  objections,  210 ;  false 

proofs,  215;  first  impressions,  267; 

conclusion,  305. 
Practice,   chief  means  of  improving 

style,  355. 
Prayer  (public)  preparation  for,  5  28, 

529;  matter  of,   530;  remarks  on 

Lord's,  530 ;  improprieties  in,  531  ; 

variety  in,  531 ;  arrangement  of,  532  ; 

language  of,  533,  534  ;  the  utterance 

of,  534- 
Preacher,  when  eloquent,  7 ;  to  preach 
on  doctrines,  76 ;  relation  to  contro- 


56o 


INDEX. 


versies,  8^ ;  to  morality,  86 ;  to 
politics,  88  ;  to  avoid  ultraism,  89  ; 
experience  of  young,  121  ;  why  old 
fails,  121;  Bible,  chief  study  of, 
122 ;  how  original,  130  ;  how  to  use 
thoughts  of  others,  138-144  ;  ex- 
plaining text,  155;  to  study  com- 
mon mind,  222 ;  to  be  a  close 
observer,  230 ;  to  excite  feeling, 
252 ;  must  feel  himself,  254 ;  not 
uniformly  vehement,  257  ;  cultivate 
variety,  297 ;  avoid  forced  feeling, 
301;  be  perspicuous,  362;  have 
variety  of  style,  403;  not  aim  at 
prettiness,  407. 

Preaching,  characteristic  of  Christian- 
ity, i;  among  Pagans,  i,  2;  rela- 
tion to  printing,  i  ;  to  pastoral  work, 
2 ;  difficulty  of,  4 ;  requisites  to 
effective,  7;  an  art,  10;  before  class, 
14,  note;  doctrinal,  76;  political, 
88;  historical,  93;  expository,  317; 
extemporaneous,  431,  432,  438, 
456  ff. 

Presumption,  use  m  argument,  175- 
179. 

Profuseness,  396. 

Progressive  approach,  argument  from, 
205. 

Prolixity,  375,  376.  _ 

Proposition,  logical  and  rhetorical, 
279. 

Propriety,  pulpit,  538. 

Proverbs,  value  of,  240,  241. 

Punctuation,  356. 

QuiNTiLiAN,  Institutes  of  Oratory, 
543  ;  on  the  orator,  6,  note ;  on 
Doisterousness,  159  ;  on  slight  argu- 
ments, 223  ;  sharp  saying  of,  241  ; 
on  introduction,  275  ;  on  clearness 
of  style,  362. 

Quotations,  use  of  foreign,  350. 

Ramsey,  Samuel,  on  English  Gram- 
mar, 552. 

Reading,  remarks  on,  126;  public,  of 
Scripture,  512,  517;  good,  a  rare 
accomplishment,  514;  club  recom- 
mended, 515;  emphasis  in,  516; 
expression  in,  515  ;  different  styles 
of,  518. 

Reading  sermons,  origin  of  practice, 
435  ;  where  custom  prevails,  436  ; 
advantages  of,  439-441 ;  disadvan- 
tages of,  441-446;  suggestions  as 
to,  ^46-450. 

Recapitulation,  300. 

Reciting  sermons  from  memory,  ad- 


vantages of,  451  ;  disadvantages  of, 
452  ;  of  orations,  453. 

Reductio  ad  absurdum,  206. 

References,  use  of,  74. 

Refutation,  207 ;  often  not  complet-e, 
208;  indirect,  211;  not  too  vehe- 
ment, 213  ;  effect  of  successful,  214. 

Renan,  reference  to,  342. 

Repentance,  texts  on,  81. 

Repetition,  411. 

Revision,  Canterbury,  28  ;  New  Test- 
ament, 66,  note. 

Revival  sermons,  105. 

Rhetoric,  rules  of,  10;  dangers  of,  11. 

Rhythm,  in  prose,  412 ;  books  on, 
414. 

Ripley,  on  texts,  25  ;  on  objections, 
219 ;  on  arrangement,  262 ;  on  the 
proposition,  280. 

Rogers,  Henry,  quoted,  407. 

Ruskin,  on  imagination,  421,  424, 
428,  note. 

Russell,  on  elocution,  553. 

Ryle,  Expository  Thoughts,  337. 

Sacred  eloquence,  Rogers  on,  407. 

Schleiermacher,  324,  439,  note. 

Science,  a  source  of  illustration,  234. 

Scriptures,  ?  source  of  illustration, 
242 ;  study  of,  formerly  and  now, 
326,  327;  public  reading  of,  517. 

Sears,  Lorenzo,  History  of  Oratory, 

Sensation  in  preaching,  149;  dangers 
of,  150. 

Sentences,  long  and  short,  370;  peri- 
odic, 386 ;  emphatic  arrangement 
of,  388  ;  broken,  392. 

Sequence,  logical  and  physical,  185. 

Sermon,  parts  of,  266 ;  introduction, 
266;  plan,  276;  divisions,  281; 
conclusion,  298  ;  length  of,  536. 

Sermons,  subject  or  text,  75  ;  classi- 
fied according  to  matter,  75  ;  doctri- 
nal, 76 ;  not  treatises,  80 ;  moral, 
86  ;  political,  88  ;  historical,  93  ; 
experimental,  96;  funeral,  100;  aca- 
demic, 103;  revival,  105;  to  chil- 
dren, 109;  to  special  classes,  115; 
different  species  of,  306;  subject, 
308  ;  examples  of  subject,  309  ; 
text,  311;  examples  of  text,  313- 
315  ;  expository,  317  ;  scheme  of 
series  of  expository,  328 ;  length  of, 
536. 

Services,  length  of,  535. 

Shakespeare,  quoted,  351,  398,  507, 
508. 

Shedd,  on  getting  meaning  of  text, 
67;  preacher's  duty  to  society,  90; 


INDEX. 


56l 


on  homiletical  habit,  122,  note;  on 
finding  skeleton  of  sermon,  312  ;  on 
expository  preaching,  320;  on  sa- 
cred orator,  382. 

Sherlock,  202,  note. 

Sidgwick,  on  Fallacies,  551. 

Simplicity  of  style,  415  ;  affectation 
of,  418;  of  worship,  511. 

Singing,  a  means  of  cultivating  the 
voice,  486. 

Skeletons  and  sketches,  141. 

Skill,  as  requisite  to  good  preaching, 

9. 

Smith,  Adam,  on  style,  406. 

Smith,  C.  J.,  Synonyms  Discrimi- 
nated,  552. 

Smith,  WUder,  Extempore  Preaching, 

o  553-  ^ 

Soule,  Synonyms,  552. 

South,  on  style,  416. 

Speaking,  in  relation  to  style,  359. 

Spectator,  139. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  on  style,  418. 

Spirit,  Holy,  help  of,  462,  540. 

Spiritualizing,  in  nature  of  things,  50  ; 
in  Bible,  5 1 ;  practised  by  the 
Fathers,  51;   evil  effects  of,  69. 

Spiritual  manifestations,  198. 

Spurgeon,  using  several  texts,  23 ; 
quoting  hymns,  239 ;  on  illustra- 
tion, 240,  note;  introductions,  271, 
note;  reading  Scriptures,  519. 

Spurious  passages,  not  to  be  used  as 
texts,  28  ;  examples  of,  29. 

Starkie,  on  Evidence,  1 76,  note. 

Storrs,  Preaching  without  Notes,  553 ; 

474. 

Style,  general  observations  on,  339 ; 
treatises  on,  339,  note;  Buffon  on, 
340 ;  importance  of,  341  ;  French, 
German,  and  American,  343;  means 
of  improving,  345  ;  models  of,  352  ; 
variety  of,  360;  properties  of,  361; 
perspicuity  of,  361-379;  spoken  and 
written,  yj-j,  378;  energy  of,  380- 
404;  elegance  of,  405-419. 

Swedenborg,  reference  to,  50. 

Swift,  letter  to  a  young   clergyman, 

365. 
Synonyms,  368,  369. 

Talks,  on  meaning  of  passages,  327. 

Taste,  good,  151,  405. 

Taylor,  W.  M.,  lectures  on  preaching, 
549 ;  on  eloquence,  7,  note. 

Tennyson,  Northern  Farmer,  262; 
carefulness  in  revision,  358. 

Terms,  to  be  defined,  165  ;  ambigu- 
ous, to  be  avoided,  173;  to^be  in- 
telligible,  365 ;    exact,   367 ;    more 


energetic  when  specific,  382  ;  not 
inelegant,  410. 

Testimony,  argument  from,  197 ; 
Christ's,  201. 

Text,  meaning  of  the  term,  19;  origi- 
nally long,  20;  advantages  of  hav- 
ing, 21 ;  objections  to,  22  ;  selection 
of,  23 ;  lists  of,  24  ;  rules  for  select- 
ing, 25-31  ;  odd,  26;  familiar,  27; 
spurious  passages  not  to  be  used, 
28 ;  sayings  of  uninspired  men  as, 
29 ;  accommodation  of,  33-36 ;  diffi- 
culty in  interpreting,  38  ;  sources  of 
error  in  interpreting,  38-55 ;  ex- 
amples of  misappHed,  55-64;  study 
of,  65  ;  explanation  of,  155. 

Theology,  Systematic,  value  of,  123, 
124. 

Theremin,  on  eloquence,  544;  6, 

Transitional  words,  296. 

Translation,  disadvantages  of  a,  39, 
40 ;  uses  of  a,  66. 

Translations,  a  means  of  improving 
style,  358. 

Trench,  on  English  language,  552. 

Trial  by  jury,  199. 

Uninspired  men,  sayings  of,  29,  30, 

note. 
Unity  of  theme,  importance  of,  315, 

323- 
University  (English)  training,   effect 

of,  343- 

Van  Dyke,  Dr.  Henry,  lectures  on 
preaching,  550. 

Verbosity,  394. 

Vinet,  Homiletics,  545 ;  on  eloquence, 
6 ;  on  use  of  texts,  23 ;  on  interpre- 
tation, 42,  46,  54;  referred  to,  76, 
90,  153,  note,  205,  252,  note;  on 
definition,  164;  accent  of  authority, 
171;  on  a  priori^  184  ;  pure  reason- 
ing, 188;  refutation,  208,  210,  211, 
212;  arrangement,  259,  261;  elo- 
quence, 264;  introductions,  276; 
plan  of  sermon,  277  ;  on  Bossuet, 
285  ;  on  style,  344. 

Virgil,  care  in  revision,  358. 

Voice,  importance  of  a  good,  483 ; 
powers  of,  484;  compass,  484, 
487;  volume,  485,  488;  penetrating 
power,  485,  488;  melody,  485,  491 ; 
improvement  of,  486 ;  rules  for  man- 
agement of,  492. 

Voltaire,  on  texts,  23. 

Watson,  Dr.  John  ("Ian  Mac- 
laren  "),  lectures  on  preaching,  550; 
on  divisions,  283. 


36 


562 


INDEX. 


Wayland,  Francis,  on  written  dis- 
courses, 459. 

Webster,  Daniel,  on  the  application, 
245. 

Wendell,  Barrett,  work  on  Rhetoric, 

544. 

Wesley,  John,  270,  note. 

Whately,  Logic,  551;  on  texts,  67; 
anecdote  of,  135 ;  Logic,  1 72 ;  on  pre- 
sumption, 177,  178,  179,  note;  re- 
ferred to,  186,  note,  190,  192,  193, 
197,  198,205,209,213;  quoted,  212; 
on  exciting  feelings,  252;  on  con- 


ciseness, 375  ;  general  and  specific 
terms,  384 ;  periods,  387 ;  verbosity, 
394  ;  uniform  energy,   402. 

Wnitefield's  oratory,  459;  remark  of, 
538. 

Whitney,  English  Grammar,  552. 

Writing,  sermons,  439;  habit  of,  465. 

Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching,  548  f. 

ZiNCKE,  F.  B.,  method  of  extempo- 
rary preaching,  471. 


By  GEORGE  ADAM  SMITH,  D.D*,  LL.D. 

The 

Historical  Geography 
of  the  Holy  Land 

Seventh  Edition.    With  Scripture  Index  and  Six  Colored 
Maps,  specially  prepared.     8vo,  cloth,  730  pages,  $4.50 


_.  .  .  No  one  work  has  ever  before  embodied  all  this  variety  of  material 
to  illustrate  the  whole  subject.  His  geographical  statements  are  pen-pictures. 
We  are  made  to  see  the  scene.  No  important  problem  is  untouched.  With- 
out question  it  will  take  its  place  at  once  as  a  standard  work,  indispensable  to 
the  thoroughgoing  student  of  the  Bible.  —  Sunday-School  Times. 

•  .  '  An  exhaustive  collection  of  material  lay  outside  the  plan  of  the  author. 
His  intention  is  rather  to  show  how  the  history  of  the  land  is  conditioned  by 
its  physical  structure.  It  is  thus  the  idea  of  Karl  Ritter  which  rules  the  treat- 
ment and  presentation.  Very  comprehensive  sections  are  concerned,  not  with 
the  history,  but  with  the  nature  of  the  land.  .  .  .  The  author  pays  special 
attention  to  the  military  operations.  One  could  sometimes  imagine  that  an 
officer  is  writing,  who,  above  all,  regards  the  land  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
military  strategist.  In  this  connection  especially  the  history  of  Israel  in  its 
chief  crises  in  Old  Testament  times  receives  striking  illumination.  Large  pas- 
sages are  frequently  quoted  from  the  Old  Testament  in  order  to  explain  them 
by  the  exhibition  of  their  geographical  background.  In  addition  the  authof 
has  a  special  gift  of  vivid  representation.  He  makes  the  history  transact  itself 
before  the  eye  of  the  reader  in  dramatic  form.  One  sees,  everywhere,  that  the 
landscapes  which  he  describes  stand  before  his  own  eyes.  Thus  the  book  is 
an  extremely  valuable  means  of  aid  to  the  understanding  of  the  history,  espe- 
cially of  the  Old  Testament.  —  Prof.  Schurbr,  of  Kiel,  in  the  TAeol.  Litera- 
iur-Zeitung. 

The  book  is  too  rich  to  summarize.  .  .  .  The  language  is  particularly  well 
chosen.  Few  pages  are  without  some  telling  phrase  happily  constructed  to 
attract  attention  and  hold  the  memory,  and  we  often  feel  that  the  wealth  of 
imagery  would  be  excessive  for  prose  were  it  not  that  it  is  chosen  with  such 
appropriateness  and  scientific  truth.  ...  To  the  reader  much  of  the  pleasure 
of  perusing  the  volume  comes  from  its  luxurious  typography,  and  the  exquisite 
series  of  orographical  maps  prepared  by  Mr.  Bartholomew  from  the  work  of 
the  Survey.  These  maps  alone  are  more  suggestive  and  enlightening  than 
many  treatises,  and  they  are  destined,  we  trust,  to  enliven  many  a  sermon,  and 
turn  the  monotony  of  the  records  of  Israelitish  wars  into  a  thrilling  romance.  — 
speaker. 


A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  &  SON 

3  and  5  W.  ISth  Street,  New  York 


By  GEORGE  ADAM  SMITH,  D.D>,  LL,D. 

The  Book  of  Isaiah 

In  Two  Volumes.     Crown  8vo,  cloth,  $1.50  each. 
Volume  I.    Chapters  I.— XXXIX. 
Volume  II.    Chapters  XL.— LXVI. 

This  is  a  noble  volume  of  a  noble  series.  Isaiah  will  ever  be  the  cream  of 
the  Old  Testament  evangelistic  prophecy,  and  as  the  ages  go  on  will  supply 
seed-thought  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  grow  into  flowers  and  fruits,  vines 
and  trees,  of  divine  truth  for  the  refreshment  and  nourishment  of  the  intellect, 
heart,  character,  and  life.  How  can  any  pastor  or  instructor  of  the  public, 
young  or  old,  afford  to  be  without  sitch  aids  ? — Baltimore  Methodist. 

Prof.  George  Adam  Smith  has  such  a  mastery  of  the  scholarship  of  his 
subject  that  it  would  be  a  sheer  impertinence  for  most  scholars,  even  though 
tolerable  Hebraists,  to  criticise  his  translations ;  and  certainly  it  is  not  the 
intention  of  the  present  reviewer  to  attempt  anything  of  the  kind,  to  do  which 
he  is  absolutely  incompetent.  All  we  desire  is  to  let  English  readers  know 
how  very  lucid,  impressive  —  and,  indeed^  how  vivid  —  a  study  of  Isaiah  is 
within  their  reach  ;  the  fault  of  the  book,  if  it  has  a  fault,  being  rather  that  it 
finds  too  many  points  of  connection  between  Isaiah  and  our  modern  world, 
than  that  it  finds  too  few.  In  other  words,  no  one  can  say  that  the  book  is 
not  full  of  life.  —  Spectator. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say  how  highly  we  appreciate  the  work,  or  how 
useful  we  believe  it  will  be.  —  Church  Bells. 

He  writes  with  great  rhetorical  power,  and  brings  out  into  vivid  reality  the 
historical  position  of  his  author.  —  Saturday  Reviexv. 

Mr.  Smith  gives  us  models  of  expositions ;  expositions  for  cultivated  con- 
gregations, no  doubt,  but  still  expositions  which  may  have  been  largely 
preached  in  church.  They  are  full  of  matter,  and  show  careful  scholarship 
throughout.  We  can  think  of  no  commentary  on  Isaiah  from  which  the 
preacher  will  obtain  scholarly  and  trustworthy  suggestions  for  his  sermons  so 
rapidly  and  so  pleasantly  as  from  this.  —  Record. 

The  Book  of  the  TwcIvc  Prophets 

commonly  called  the  minor 

In  Two  Volumes.     Crown  8vo,  cloth,  $1.50  each. 

Vol.  I.—  Amos,  Hosea  and  Micah.     Seventh  Edition. 

Vol.  II. —  Zephaniah,  Nahum,  Habakkuk,  Obadiah, 
Haggai,  Zechariah  I.  — VIII.,  "Malachi,"  Joel, 
"Zechariah''IX. — XIV.,  AND  Jonah.  Fourth  Edition. 

In  Dr.  Smith's  volumes  we  have  much  more  than  a  popular  exposition  of 
the  minor  Prophets.  We  have  that  which  will  satisfy  the  scholar  and  the  stu- 
dent quite  as  much  as  the  person  who  reads  for  pleasure  and  for  edification. 
...  If  the  minor  Prophets  do  not  become  popular  reading  it  is  not  because 
anything  more  can  be  done  to  make  them  attractive.  Dr.  Smith's  volumes 
present  this  part  of  Scripture  in  what  is  at  once  the  most  attractive  and  the 
most  profitable  form.  —  Dr.  Marcus  Dods,  in  the  British  Weekly. 

Few  interpreters  of  the  Old  Testament  to-day  rank  higher  than  George 
Adam  Smith.  He  is  at  home  in  criticism,  in  geographical  and  archasological 
c]uestions,  and  in  philology.  .  .  .  Hardly  any  commentator  of  the  present  day 
is  more  successful  than  he  in  putting  the  student  at  once  into  the  heart  of  an 
Old  Testament  problem.  —  S.  S.  Times. 

The  above  four  voltcvnes  are  contained  in  "  The 
Eocpositor^s  Bible,"  and  are  subject  to  special  sub- 
scription  rates  in  connection  tvith  that  series. 
Descriptive  circular  on  application* 

A.  C  ARMSTRONG  &  SON 

3  and  5  W,  J  8th  Street,  New  York 


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